Mission's Gift
by Kita the Spaz
Summary: When Iruka returns from a year-long mission with a child bearing a unique bloodline trait, the owner of said bloodline is not happy.
1. Chapter 1

**Mission's Gift**

Some of you may know me from LiveJournal, but Micah convinced me to make an account over here and post my stories, so here goes.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters. I just torture them for fun!

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"_What the hell sort of game are you playing at, Umino?!"_

Pinned against the wall by the jounin's crushingly strong grip on his throat, Iruka didn't struggle. In the part of his brain that wasn't occupied with trying to fill his desperately aching lungs with oxygen, he noted the deliberate lack of honorifics.

"I'm not playing, K-Kakashi-sensei." Iruka rasped painfully.

The single steel-gray eye glittered with anger and a wave of killing intent radiated from the jounin.

_"Don't feed me that crap, Umino! _You know _what _I'm talking about!" A hand in a fingerless glove stabbed an accusing finger at the ground near Iruka's feet. There the subject of their battle sat, crying piteously. The distressed infant was giving off flares of near visible chakra. "That's a bloodline trait unique to the Hatake clan!" The voice had gone cold and deadly. "You're playing with fire, Sensei."

Iruka gasped for air, increasingly aware of the red rage and murderous intent radiating off the other man. "N-not p-playing…"

The fist flying at his jaw was something of a welcome relief. Iruka heard more than felt his jawbone snap cleanly in two. The pain hit him a moment later as he sprawled ungracefully to the ground; head pounding as he desperately sucked in air through a mouth gone dangerously askew.

But the world snapped into focus at the sight of the jounin reaching for the frightened, wailing infant. Before he could think about it, Iruka was between the man and the baby, kunai drawn. He had the satisfaction of seeing the single eye widen in disbelief.

**"Brat!"** A familiar voice thundered down the street, followed by an equally familiar chakra signature. "Back off before Iruka-sensei feeds you your liver." Tsunade strode up, hazel eyes surveying the scene and the crowd of witnesses. "That's an order."

Kakashi didn't move, anger and resentment flaring sullenly in his aura. Tsunade ignored him, turning to Iruka and softening her voice. "Put the weapons down, Iruka-sensei. Everything is under control."

Iruka straightened, allowing the tension in his shoulders to ease. Tsunade rested a hand on his shoulder, pulsing just enough healing warmth though the contact to ease the mind-numbing pain in his jaw.

"Hatake." She ordered, turning back to the furious jounin. "Take yourself home, shower and cool off for a while."

His glare intensified and Tsunade shook her head. "I didn't want to have to do this, but you leave me no choice." At a gesture of her hand, a pair of ANBU flanked the enraged copy-nin. Cold eyes stared back at him impassively behind the white masks, daring him to try them.

"Eagle, Serpent, escort Kakashi home to cool off until I summon him."

"Yes, Hokage-sama."

As the fuming Kakashi was escorted away, she turned her attention back to the cause of the squabble. Iruka had scooped up the infant and was doing his best to soothe it through an obviously shattered jawbone. "My office, Iruka-sensei. Now."

Ignoring the stares of those who had witnessed the scene, Iruka straightened his spine and followed the Hokage. When they got to the tower, she waved to Izumo. "Shizune's at the hospital. Fetch her for me."

She waved Iruka into her office. The door had barely closed behind them when Shizune arrived, panting and short of breath. "You called for me?"

Tsunade smiled at her assistant. "Do me a favor and check out the baby while I take care of this-" She gestured at Iruka's swollen and discolored face. "And if you can get him to stop crying, that would be a bonus."

Iruka reluctantly surrendered the child into Shizune's arms. She gave him a reassuring smile before taking the infant into the Hokage's private bathroom.

Iruka tried not to wince away as Tsunade placed warm palms against his throbbing face. She smiled and he blinked as she delicately blocked the over-loaded pain receptors in his brain. He relaxed into the warm depths of her healing chakra.

"I suppose it was inevitable he would notice." Tsunade murmured quietly as she worked a network of healing through the broken bone. "Though, for a genius, he's remarkably obtuse about _some_ things." She sent a knowing glance at the chuunin, who simply blinked, a light flush making his scar stand out in high relief. They had had this conversation before.

Tsunade gently manipulated his jaw back into place. "I'm a little surprised it took him so long to realize. I though he was cleverer than that."

Panic filled Iruka, making his heart skip a beat. He struggled to convey his worries through an unresponsive mouth. "Dunnn 'etttt Aakkasss'ee aaake immm a'aayy." (1)

"Don't speak," Tsunade admonished sharply. "You've got a good fifteen minutes of forced healing before you'll be able to talk." Her hazel eyes softened at the look of terror in Iruka's expressive brown eyes. "The brat won't take him away from you, I promise."

Her lips quirked in wry humor. "I have a dozen tests I can do that can prove your relation to him."

Iruka rolled his eyes and stared at her, speaking volumes with his gaze. Tsunade blushed a little. "Dammit, you have a point. Those very same tests could prove other things too."

"Don't you think it would be best to simply tell him the truth, Hokage-sama; Iruka-sensei?" Shizune said quietly, cradling the now-pacified infant close to her breast.

Iruka shook his head frantically, ignoring the glare he got from the Hokage. She caught his head and forced him to hold still. "Don't move, dammit."

Tsunade released him with another quelling glare before turning her attention to her assistant. "If it were that easy, Shizune, I'd say yes. Unfortunately, there are a lot of… unusual factors in this case. I have very little say in the matter."

"Unusual factors?"

"Well, you know the circumstances of his birth, Shizune. Do you know why he was born?"

Shizune looked surprised. "Why? I'm afraid I don't understand."

Iruka clamped a hand around Tsunade's wrist. "Don'." His voice was still slurred, but quiet and understandable. "My story t' tell or not."

Tsunade's eyes saddened, but she stepped back. "I can see you're going to be stubborn about this."

A wry smile quirked the corner of the chuunin sensei's mouth. "Course. Woudn' be me otherwise."

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(1) For those of you who don't speak broken-jaw Iruka, he said, "Don't let Kakashi take him away."


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter two**

**Disclaimer:** Nope, still don't own and not for profit!

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Kakashi fumed silently, alternately cursing the Hokage and Umino Iruka as he prowled his suddenly too-confining apartment. Eagle and Serpent were still stationed outside, a careful web of chakra keeping him caged. Eagle he knew from his time in ANBU and he knew the man wouldn't be careless enough to let him escape and go wring that scrawny chuunin's neck. Serpent was younger, but from the effortless way his chakra melded with Eagle's, it was clear they had been partners for a long time. There would be no getting out of this trap until Tsunade sent for him.

Seething, he paced the small living room, desperately trying to come up with some way to connect the dots in a way that made sense. Unfortunately, there were glaring gaps in the picture. Kakashi knew well that he was the last of the Hatake clan. Sakumo had been an only child and his father had died well before Kakashi was ever born. Konoha's _'White Fang' _had often told his son how they were the last members of the noble clan… before his disgrace (after that, he had seldom spoken of anything).

Hatake was a name feared for their mastery of certain bloodline limits, and the last of their clan had died out, outside the walls of Konoha. The Second Hokage had accepted Kakashi's great-grandfather and his pregnant wife into the village, offering them protection from those who would wipe their bloodline from the earth. As a result, the surviving Hatake's had sworn loyalty to the village that protected them, a blood vow that had come to rest squarely on Kakashi's shoulders after his father's death. That vow had, in part, been the cause of Sakumo's death. His failed mission had hurt Konoha, and with the weight of that added to his own guilt and the disgrace, he had chosen to end his own life. Kakashi knew intimately that he was the only one of his bloodline left.

Therefore, there was no possible way that the child could be of his bloodline, but the evidence was there in the traits he had seen for himself today.

Iruka had returned from a year-long information-gathering mission with the infant in a sling across his chest, and a tale of how the baby's mother had been his source of information (_classified, of course) _and she had gotten pregnant with his child during their 'association.' He had claimed the woman had never recovered from the birth and had died soon after the boy had come into the world. With his source of information dried up, and the chance that his position would be compromised, Iruka had taken his infant son and fled back to Konoha. There was nothing out of the ordinary in his story, for it had happened before, among other shinobi. Mitsuo's young daughter, Moegi, had happened that way, though it had been the kunoichi's mistake in letting herself get pregnant by her inside information source. Pillow talk had always been one of the best ways of getting information from people.

Kakashi would have thought the young chuunin would have been more careful, but had thought nothing more of it until today. He'd been drowsing in the branches of a tree above a dango stand when he'd heard Anko greet Iruka in her usual boisterous manner. She and the teacher had gotten their dango and sat companionably beneath the striped awning, eating and chattering.

Anko cooed over the baby (making Kakashi thankful she had no children) and had begun asking Iruka questions about the baby's mother. "You can't tell me what she did or who she worked for, but at least tell me what she looked like. What was she like?"

Iruka hesitated a long moment. "S-she was beautiful, in an understated sort of way. She was jounin…" He paused, before adding in a careful tone of voice, "Part of the reason I was chosen for the mission."

"Right… because of that little trick you can do with hiding your chakra. Wish you'd taught me that one." Anko laughed.

"I wasn't about to give away the secret behind how I was able to get away with so many pranks, Anko-san." Iruka chuckled. "Not even to you."

"So, go on. What did she look like?"

"She had silver-pale hair, like his. It was wild, so she kept it out of her eyes with her headband. I never saw her smile, but she had this crazy sense of humor and the ability to make me laugh. She loved to read and could always be found with a book."

Anko laughed heartily. "You bookworm types always find one another attractive."

Iruka snorted. "Maybe we do. But it doesn't really matter. You know the story. She was an assignment, nothing more." There was something that might have been bitterness in his laugh. "I don't think I was much more than that to her. A release, maybe, from the stresses of being a high-level ninja."

Anko didn't laugh, but her voice held a great deal of amusement. "You don't give yourself enough credit, Iruka-kun. I know half the jounin and chuunin population who would have loved to have been in her place. You're very popular. Or haven't you noticed how often Mitsou-san and Kagura-san have called about having parent-teacher meetings? Or how often Tori-san waits until you come on shift to hand in a mission report?"

_"Tori-san?" _ Iruka spluttered.

There was malicious enjoyment in her voice. "Oh, you should hear him in his cups. Genma and I got him drunk once and all we ever heard about was_ "Iruka-sensei's pert little ass"_ and how much he wanted to do certain things to it and you. It was a riot!"

_"Anko-chan!" _ Iruka sounded scandalized.

She giggled. _Giggled? _ Kakashi thought incredulously. _ Anko actually giggled? _ "So now you relax and drop the formality? I should tease you more often, Iruka-kun!"

Iruka huffed in irritation.

"But seriously, there's not one of them that wouldn't love to help you raise this adorable little one."

Iruka's voice dropped to a low growl. "I don't need any help."

His anger startled Kakashi as much as it did Anko, who managed a contrite and somewhat confused apology.

It was then that Iruka's current group of pre-genin terrorists came running by, Moegi screaming at the top of her lungs as Konohamaru chased her with a large and very ugly beetle.

The shrieks woke the sleeping infant, who began to wail. Iruka emerged from the dango-seller's stall without the infant and snagged Konohamaru by his collar and proceeded to berate him. The boy dropped the beetle as Anko emerged from the stall, too, looking dismayed by the loudly screaming child in her arms.

As confused by the events as Kakashi, the beetle flew straight for the startled kunoichi. Anko reacted like she would have to any threat, freeing her arms to reach for a kunai. That meant dropping the flailing bundle she was holding.

She realized her mistake almost as soon as she made it, diving to keep the baby from hitting the ground.

Terrified, the infant screamed louder and began throwing off random flares of chakra to anyone with eyes to see them. Spikes of _white _chakra.

Kakashi dropped his book.

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Scowling, Kakashi pulled his edition of_ Icha Icha Violence_ from the pocket of his vest and smoothed the creased pages where it had hit the ground. He had never dropped his_ Icha Icha_ before. That was only more proof that the world as he knew it had been set on its ear.

He looked up as he felt the chakra web keeping him captive in his own apartment waver. Eagle opened the front door. "Hokage-sama wishes to see you now."


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

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A/N: Thank you for all the reviews! Hope you enjoy the next chapter!

Kakashi could sense Tsunade and Shizune's chakra signatures as he approached the door, flanked by Eagle and Serpent, who had shadowed him here from his apartment. Probably to make sure he didn't run off and strangle one Umino Iruka. They were alone in the office, no sign of the chuunin.

"You wished to see me, Tsunade." He kept his voice cold and left off any acknowledgment of rank. Eagle and Serpent stiffened behind him and he took a sort of grim pleasure in their appalled shock.

Tsunade took it in stride. "Yes, brat. Come in and close the door behind you. Eagle, you two stand by for the moment."

"As you wish, Tsunade-sama."

Kakashi scowled at her, slouching into one of the seats across from her. "I want to know what the hell is going on with Umino's brat." He said bluntly.

Tsunade accepted a cup of tea from her assistant, and ignoring her blatant glare of disapproval, added a shot of whatever was in her flask. "I think we'll all need a drink before the night is out, Shizune." She turned her attention back to the copy-nin. "If I order you to stay away from him, will you obey?"

Kakashi stiffened and dropped the lazy slouch. "I _always_ obey orders." He hissed.

Tsunade slanted him a glance. "But you're known to bend them a bit. I want your word that if I give you the order, you will not harass Iruka-sensei."

"I will not disobey." Kakashi said stiffly, anger making his Sharingan ache dully. "But I want to know what the_ hell_ is going on. There are no Hatake's left!"

"Save one." Tsunade said quietly. "I wish I could tell you what you want to know, but it's not my decision to make. I gave Iruka-sensei my word, that if it should not endanger the sanctity of the village, the tale of his son is not mine to tell."

"So you do know the whole story."

"I am the Hokage, brat. Of course I know the story. I know more about it save any but Iruka-sensei himself." Tsunade sipped her tea. "What I _can_ tell you… The baby is indeed Iruka's. I performed several tests to confirm that. The boy gets half his genetic code from Umino Iruka."

"And the other half?"

She eyed him over the rim of her cup. "You don't think I'm going to give it up that easily, do you?"

"It was worth a shot."

"Nice try, brat." Tsunade set her cup down. "I'm not going to order you to stay away from him. Unless you attempt to harm him again, and then I'll have you under guard so fast your head will spin. Clear?"

Kakashi nodded slowly.

Tsunade ran a finger along the rim of her cup as she eyed him speculatively. "You may ask him, politely of course, about his child, but no more threatening." She tilted her head to one side. "He is within his rights to not answer you, of course. I will neither order him to divulge his secrets, nor allow you to abuse my trust by trying to intimidate the story out of him. Some parts are classified, by my order, so he has every right to tell you to shove off if you ask him about those parts."

As Kakashi rose, she stopped him with a single, penetrating look. "This is a delicate balance I'm offering you, brat. Try not to tip the scales." He thought for a moment her voice sounded forlorn and sad. "Once the balance is destroyed, there's no restoring it."

Kakashi bowed his head to her. "Hokage-sama." Then he was gone.

Tsunade summoned Eagle and Serpent into the room. "I let him go for now, but I want a weather eye kept on him. Cycle shifts among the greenies, but make sure there's always someone who can handle him within spitting distance of the greenie. I don't want to lose an ambitious recruit who tries to take on Sharingan Kakashi in a murderous mood."

Eagle bowed his head. "Do you think that's wise, Hokage-sama?"

"Don't trust my judgment or don't trust him?" She said shrewdly. "It's not like I have a choice about it, Eagle. He's still one of my most valuable shinobi. And I don't think he'll harm Iruka-sensei… at least, not once he calms down."

Kakashi sped straight to his apartment, torn between seething and grateful the old lady had let him go. He let himself in through the window, pausing to water Mr. Ukki, and gathered up some of his gear. A couple of chakra-imbued listening devices and he would be able to hear everything the chuunin said in his apartment.

Time for his new favorite game… 'chuunin-stalking.'

An hour later, he was bored stiff, and _Icha Icha_ wasn't helping. Peering through a window, he'd watched the chuunin sensei warm a bottle for the baby and make himself a cup of tea while he fed the infant. He spoke quietly to the baby, but mostly stayed quiet. Kakashi watched him settle the drowsy infant in his lap after burping and try to grade some of the homework his substitute had handed his class. He didn't stay still for long, rising to run a bath in the kitchen sink for the little boy.

Iruka cradled his infant son and began to undress him, singing quietly under his breath. Kakashi could make out the words, though just barely. _"My son, I have nothing I can give, but this chance that you may live…"_

Kakashi blinked at the words. He knew that lullaby, though he hadn't heard it since he was five. Before her death, his mother had often sung it to him.

Iruka continued singing softly as he bathed the baby, his scarred face softened with love. Kakashi watched him lift the child out of the water and lower him onto a towel. Tenderly brushing back the thistledown puff of silver hair, his expressive brown eyes saddened. "So beautiful…"

A moment later he was laughing in amused disgust as he dodged the stream of urine from the infant. "And we all know where you got your prankster tendencies from." Still chuckling, he cleaned up and put a fresh diaper on the baby.

Kakashi and Iruka both sensed the new arrivals chakra at the same time. Iruka didn't look up from fitting flailing limbs into a tiny black outfit. "Let yourself in, please, Ibiki-san. My hands are rather full. The wards are keyed, all you have to do is let them feel a little bit of your chakra."

Kakashi watched as the scarred interrogation specialist pressed a palm to the heavy wood of Iruka's door before opening it. "Nice wards you have there, Iruka-sensei."

Iruka emerged from the kitchen with the baby in his arms. "The traps are worse… or better, depending on your definition."

Ibiki smiled, drawing the scars across his face tight. "Ah, so it was you that set that trap at the baths that both Ebisu and Jiraiya ran afoul of."

Iruka's smile was pleasant. "I simply guaranteed that the women could smell them coming. But that was a long time ago. I assume Tsunade sent you."

Ibiki nodded.

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Cookies if you know where the lyrics from Iruka's lullaby came from. (And that means no googling it! XD)


	4. Chapter 4

**Thank you for all the reviews and ~hands out cookies~ cookies for **_Flashtabulor, Betthany, Blue Jay 21, and shywriter _**on the origins of Iruka's lullaby. The movie was playing in the background as I was writing the last chapter, and those couple of lines sounded like something a ninja parent might sing to their child.**

Sorry that this chapter is rather short, but they will get longer, _Promise!_

_-Kita_the_spaz_

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**Chapter Four**

"You know why I'm here then."

"Of course." Iruka settled down on his couch and nodded Ibiki toward the matching chair. "I assume you want my debriefing, the one Tsunade classified."

"That would be a start. You know you're being followed."

Iruka nodded. "Kakashi-sensei has been watching me since about seven. I can sense ANBU signatures too, but they're not close enough to observe me. I assume their goal is to watch Kakashi-sensei."

Kakashi blinked at the sure knowledge of his observation. He was certain he'd hidden his chakra from the chuunin.

Ibiki rose and went to the window. "Are you going to hang out on a rooftop all night or come in and say hello?" The scarred interrogation specialist asked softly.

"Maa…" Kakashi dropped down onto the windowsill, scratching the back of his head sheepishly. "I wanted to apologize for overreacting and breaking Iruka-sensei's jaw earlier."

There was a snort from the couch behind Ibiki. "No you didn't, but we'll both pretend that's the reason you're here." Iruka's voice was guarded as he rose and came to the window. He had left the baby behind on the couch, freeing both hands and putting himself between the jounin and the infant. He glanced sideways at Ibiki and sighed. "Come in if you're coming in. Otherwise, get off my windowsill."

Kakashi dropped into a sitting position on the sill to slip off his sandals. Iruka fell back to give him room, but there was no fear in the chuunin's movements. In spite of the fact Kakashi had nearly killed him this afternoon, Iruka showed only the same guarded wariness of someone confronting an unknown shinobi.

Iruka sighed again. "Since I seem to be holding an impromptu gathering, I'll make tea." He picked up the infant and glanced at Ibiki. "Might as well invite the ANBU in and make this a proper party."

His sarcasm startled Kakashi. Until now, the Copy-nin had only ever seen the patient teacher or the temperamental mission-room worker. The bitter tone of his sarcasm was new and unexpected.

Iruka glanced down at the infant in his arms and suddenly passed him to Ibiki. "Keep an eye on him. I'll need to heat him another bottle soon, so I may as well do it now."

Leaving the stunned specialist staring down at the squirming form in his arms, Iruka went into the kitchen. Kakashi snickered at the stunned look on the other man's scarred face. Ibiki glared darkly at him and sat down in the chair he had vacated earlier.

"You have to support his head, Ibiki-san." Kakashi offered helpfully.

"How would you know?" Ibiki scowled but moved one of his big hands to support the baby's tiny head. "I haven't seen you doing this before."

"I raised my nin-dogs from pups, most of them. Newborn puppies can't really support their heads either. Besides," He tapped his hidden eye. "I've seen how mothers hold babies that small. I don't forget."

After watching Ibiki fumble for a few more minutes, Kakashi sighed. "Let me hold him for a second, show you how to do it."

"No." Iruka answered flatly from the kitchen. "I'll kill you _myself_ if you hand him over to Kakashi-sensei."

Kakashi looked towards the kitchen. "You have my word that I will not hurt him or run away with him. Besides, there's an ANBU outside and Ibiki right here to make sure I behave."

There was a moment of silence from the kitchen. "Fine," Iruka said at last. "I'll cut you into small pieces myself if you try anything."

Kakashi accepted the small form from the scarred jounin specialist, carefully adjusting the infant in his grasp. He stared down into unfocused brown eyes, the same color as the chuunin's. Kakashi paused. _When had he noticed the color of Iruka's eyes?_

Blinking, he looked up at Ibiki. "This is the way you hold him," He said, voice strangely thick in his throat.

Iruka came back from the kitchen with a teapot and several cups balanced on a tray. He had a bottle tucked into the crook of his arm. He set the tray on the low table and stared for a moment at Kakashi holding his son. He seemed on the verge of saying something, but his chocolate eyes softened and he offered Kakashi the bottle wordlessly.

Kakashi sank down on one end of the couch and offered the bottle to the baby. He had to clear his throat before he could speak. "W-what's his name?"

"Shimo."

Ibiki chuckled softly. "Appropriate."

Iruka poured tea for all of them, and they all sat in silence for a moment, watching the Copy-nin feed the baby.

Finally, Kakashi broke the silence. "How? Just tell me how he can have a bloodline trait unique to the Hatake clan."

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Translators note: _Shimo_-translates to frost.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five**

_A/N: Sorry for the delay on this chapter. Even though it is short, it's necessary setup for what is to come. I was out of town for a couple of day so I'll mention all my lovely reviewers here! Thank you all so much! When I finish posting this I'll reply to all of you!_

_Hybrid-Thank you for the lovely review and I'm only sorry you didn't sign it so I could reply back to you personally. Iruka is not super-strong or a secret-ANBU or anything. He's just a chuunin, though he does know a few tricks that aren't in the usual repertoire for chuunin, and I will explain why! I'm happy you enjoy this story so much!_

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Iruka rose abruptly. "Weren't you here for my debriefing, Ibiki-san? Hadn't we best take this to the Tower, then?"

"Iruka-sensei…!" Kakashi started. The infant in his arms protested the jostling with a sleepy wail.

The tension fled the chuunin's shoulders and he hurried to take the baby. Kakashi thought about not relinquishing him, but the memory of the chuunin standing between him and the infant with a kunai in hand, openly defying him despite a snapped jawbone was enough to make him surrender Shimo quietly.

"Please…" Kakashi realized he was all but begging and shut his mouth with a snap.

Iruka hesitated and looked back over his shoulder at the jounin. "I-I'll tell you soon, Kakashi-sensei. For now, please be patient." His shoulders sagged and he glanced at Ibiki. "Let's get this over with, Ibiki-san."

Kakashi thought about protesting, but something in the defeated set of the chuunin's back kept him from saying anything. He followed the two of them out of the apartment and watched Iruka reset the traps and wards with a simple touch of chakra. He might have found time to marvel at the neat exercise of power if he hadn't been consumed by the burning need to know about the baby that showed the traits of his family's bloodline.

Still mindful of the ANBU shadowing him, he decided it would not be in his best interest to follow them to the Tower.

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Iruka only relaxed when Kakashi's presence had vanished into the darkness. "So, it's true, then?" Ibiki asked shrewdly.

He was surprised by the other's sudden flare of chakra. "You should know," Iruka said tiredly. "Don't pretend Tsunade didn't let you in on this since the very beginning. Hell, you probably know more details than I do."

Ibiki snorted. "I find that rather hard to believe."

They walked in silence the rest of the way to the Hokage's tower. When they were safely in Ibiki's strangely comfortable office, Iruka relaxed and slumped into a chair, shifting the now sleeping Shimo to rest in his lap. He accepted the cup of coffee Ibiki offered with a grateful smile, cradling it close to his face to savor the scent of the bitter brew.

"Drink it, Iruka-sensei, don't make love to it." A smirk twisted Ibiki's lips.

Iruka rolled his eyes as he took a small sip. "If you knew how long I'd been craving coffee…"

"Long enough." Ibiki sank into his own leather chair. Iruka chuckled under his breath. For a torture specialist, Ibiki was fond of his little comforts. "I do want the unexpurgated version, Iruka-sensei. I've seen Tsunade's report, but she left out a lot too."

"Shizune should have hidden her _sake_ before letting her fill out reports."

Ibiki chuckled into his coffee. "More that she deliberately left things out that the council didn't need to know."

Anger made Iruka's aura flare again. "They got what they wanted. That's all they needed to know."

Ibiki waved his hand. "You don't hear me arguing with you, do you? The council is well satisfied with the results of the tests Tsunade showed them."

"Good," Iruka growled. "Then they can stay out of it from now on."

Ibiki shot the chuunin a quelling look. "You know they won't be content to stay out of it indefinitely."

"Let them _try _something." Iruka bared his teeth in a fey grin.

Ibiki knew enough not to challenge Iruka's parental instincts. "But that's not why you're here. I want the whole story. You know it will never leave this room if you don't want it to."

"Where do you want me to start?" Iruka sighed, settling his son more comfortably in his lap.

"Pretend I don't know anything, and start at the very beginning."

"…" Ibiki knew he'd set himself up when the chuunin raised both eyebrows. "I was born on a rainy day in May and – "

_"Iruka-sensei!"_

Laughing, Iruka sipped at his coffee. "It all started when I was delivering a stack of papers to the Hokage's Tower…"


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six

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A/N Thank you so much for all the reviews, and alerts on both this story and on me! I don't know what to say! Here we have some of the true plot revealed! Warnings for a pissed off Tsunade and her language! Please enjoy!

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_//Flashback//_

Iruka shifted the stack of files in his arms and looked sideways at Izumo and Kotetsu, who were both trying very hard not to look like they were eavesdropping on what was going on in the Hokage's inner office.

Tsunade's voice came very clearly through the wooden door. "No. I will not force one of my shinobi to do this. There is nothing you can say that will make me order such a thing!"

"There are provisos for this, Hokage-sama." Iruka recognized the oily voice of Sankakukei, one of the elders on the council. He was one of the worst at trying to manipulate Tsunade into things that were for the benefit of the council alone. "There is a law, is there not? Addendum forty-seven, wasn't it?"

"Don't quote laws at me, Sankakukei! I will not order it. They are my shinobi and I will not force one of them into this!"

"He is due for a physical examination soon, isn't he? He need not even know."

"You…_he need not… How dare… what…?"_ Tsunade's voice was torn between shock and outrage. "GET THE HELL OUT OF MY OFFICE NOW!" Outrage won.

"You have to remember that it's for the protection of the village, Tsunade-sama."

"Out. _Out! __**OUT!"**_

Iruka busied himself with his papers and Kotetsu and Izumo hurried to look busy as the door opened. Sankakukei emerged. There was a crash that was probably the lamp on Tsunade's desk hitting the wood a bare second after he closed the door. He smiled placidly at the three of them and hurried on his way.

Izumo and Kotetsu looked completely stunned as Iruka tapped gently on the door and Izumo hastily began composing his friend's epitaph.

"Unless you're that bastard coming to apologize, fuck off!" Tsunade hissed through the door.

Unperturbed, Iruka calmly opened the door and let himself in. Tsunade glared at him, flushed and furious as he closed and locked the door behind himself.

Her nails scored grooves in the wood of her desk as Iruka's hands flashed through a series of complicated seals. "There. Now all they'll hear is harmless conversation about these files." He tapped the stack of files he had set on the small table just inside the door. Tsunade glared furiously at him until he stepped around her and opened the scroll-case behind her desk. Her expression relaxed as he pulled a bottle of _sake_ from the bottom row and offered it to her.

"Bless you." Tsunade said with a half-smile as she finished the tea in her mug and refilled it from the bottle. After the first sip, she mellowed more and waved him to a seat. "I knew there was some reason the Third kept you close."

Iruka chuckled softly. "I knew what he needed after a meeting with the old bats on the council. It wasn't so hard to figure out what you would need."

"Clever Iruka-sensei."

Through a pleasant haze of alcohol, Tsunade studied the jutsu Iruka had wrapped around her office. "That's a dangerous jutsu to know, Iruka-sensei. I'm a little surprised it's not on the forbidden list."

Iruka flushed. "It should be. Sandaime is the one who taught it to me."

Tsunade tipped her head thoughtfully. "I can think of a few hundred reasons why he never taught this to anyone else, but why you?"

"Because he knew I'd never use it that way." Iruka answered honestly.

Tsunade snorted and refilled her cup.

Iruka chose his next words carefully. "You know, I couldn't help but overhear your meeting."

The hazel eyes that turned to study him showed no sign of the alcohol she'd imbibed. "Oh?"

"It was a little hard _not_ to, Hokage-sama."

Chewing on her bottom lip, Tsunade flushed a little. "I suppose we were a little loud. He just managed to piss me off."

"I noticed."

Tsunade stared into her cup for a moment. "Do you know what he wants me to do, Iruka-sensei? What he expects me to order one of my most valuable shinobi to do?"

"I know all the laws, Hokage-sama. Addendum forty-seven: _"All Shinobi possessive of a Bloodline limit must produce at least one progeny of the blood so that the trait does not die." _ It was drafted at the time of the last great war."

"Yes, in the case that someone with an invaluable Bloodline limit was killed, that the bloodline itself not die out." Tsunade nodded. "It's been ignored for a long time, but with Sasuke's recent betrayal, some of the elders felt it was time to be revived."

"Begging your pardon, Tsunade-sama, but Sasuke? He's still a child."

"I said it was a reason, but not _the_ reason. For all their betrayals, there are still two Uchiha's alive. But some of my shinobi are the last of their line." Hazel eyes held his for a moment.

Iruka blushed. "Ah… I don't know what you're thinking, but the Umino's didn't have a bloodline limit."

"I know that, though according to Sandaime, your talent for causing mayhem should have been a bloodline limit all by itself."

"So you know about that?"

"It was hard not to. I have an entire drawer full of reports of your exploits as a child."

Iruka struggled to control his blush. "So who then?"

Tsunade's next words shattered his self-control. "Hatake Kakashi."


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

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A/N: Thanks so much for all the reviews! I'm thrilled that all of you like my story! ~dies~ I love you all for all the kind words and the favorites and alerts and reviews!

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"Hatake Kakashi?" Iruka knew he was blushing, but he refused to look down or show any other sign of embarrassment.

"The Hatake clan took a blood oath to defend Konohagure. That is one of the things that makes the brat such a valuable resource. Of course, his Sharingan eye and ability to copy jutsu just make him that much more in demand." Tsunade tipped more _sake_ into her cup and pulled a second cup from her desk drawer and offered him the cup and bottle. "Have a drink. You're almost the color of this paper work."

Iruka obeyed, numb until the burn of the strong drink hit his throat. "And he's the last of the Hatake clan."

Tsunade nodded. "Sakumo wouldn't have willingly gone to another woman's bed after Kakashi's mother died. There are no others outside the walls of Konoha. So that blood oath fell directly to him when his father… died."

"And if he were to d-die, there would no longer be anyone with his Bloodline limit bound to the village."

The Hokage rose and paced to the window that overlooked the monument. "It's not a choice I'm comfortable with. They're demanding that I either order him to father a child or take a sample and impregnate someone without his knowledge. Either choice is one I do not wish to make." She glanced back at Iruka. "And this must be quite hard for you to hear, I imagine."

Iruka yipped, an uncomfortable sound he couldn't stop. "B-beg pardon?"

A slow smile spread across her youthful face. "I may have some of the worst gambling luck, but even I wouldn't be fool enough to bet that you didn't like him. I've seen you in the mission room. You blush whenever he hands in his report to you. Your eyes follow him around the room. You worry when he comes in injured…" She grinned at him. "Shall I go on?"

Iruka looked away, cheeks burning. "N-no, that's enough."

Tsunade returned to her seat. "It's nothing to be ashamed of, Iruka-sensei. Unlike what some of the more uptight people think, it is natural. Do you know the wolves that call the forest at the top of the monument their territory? When I was just a genin, I would watch them for hours, wishing I could be as free as they were. There was a pair of them, a small gray male and a bigger night-black male that were paired off. They acted like a mated couple." Tsunade's gaze was distant. "I think I envied them that closeness."

"I never knew anything like that."

"It's not common, because it could hurt the population, but it does happen. And it benefits the pack, in a way. Those two hunt together well and they can be relied on to defend the pack's cubs as if they were their own."

"It's not like it doesn't happen among my shinobi, either." She grinned again. "Remind me to tell you about some of the trouble Genma has gotten into. Did you know, after a night of drinking once, he wound up tied naked to Anko's bed?"

"Should I be surprised? Anko likes to play rough, or so I've heard."

"Oh, but that's not the best part. Ebisu was sleeping on top of him; also as naked as the day he was born. Gai was asleep at the foot of the bed, wearing only his legwarmers."

Iruka couldn't help it. He burst out laughing. "Where was Anko during all this?"

"She woke up in the caves at the Hokage monument, naked except for a pair of thigh-high boots and a whip. Someone had very considerately covered her with their black leather trench-coat."

Iruka snorted, knowing that there were only about three ninjas in the entire village who wore black leather trench-coats.

While he was still chuckling, Tsunade sipped at her cup and leaned back in her seat.

"I understand the elder's desire for someone of Hatake blood, but I don't want to inflict this on him… Hell, for that matter, on the poor unsuspecting woman who'd be forced to raise such a hellion."

They sat there for a moment in silence, Iruka staring at the monument and remembering his own hellion, the orphaned fox-boy who had wormed his way into his heart. The paint was long gone now, as was Naruto, but he remembered Naruto painting the faces of the monument. It brought a sad, wistful smile to his face.

Sandaime's stone visage stared back at him, reminding him of happier times. Like the time the old man had taken a heartsick, lonely child into his arms and soothed the hurt of a hundred taunting voices and eased the crippling pressure of loneliness. Or the time a determined child had slipped into the tower, past ANBU and ninja alike to sneak into the room behind Sandaime's office where any number of forbidden jutsu's and scrolls deemed too dangerous were housed. He had been determined to prove to his new father-figure that he was as good a ninja as any other. Sandaime had found him there in the hidden room, sleeping amid the scrolls, and knowing that Iruka's near-photographic memory would never forget what he had read that night.

Sandaime had been the one to forbid Iruka from using anything he had learned there unless it were in service to his Hokage. Sandaime had also been the one to determine that Iruka would never rise above the rank of chuunin and why, instead assigning him to work at the academy when his training and mandatory mission quota had been completed. He had explained, unsmiling, that there was a reason that some things were deemed forbidden, and that there was some knowledge too valuable to be allowed to fall into enemy hands.

Slowly he turned his head to regard the Hokage, lost in quiet contemplation. "Hokage-sama," he said at last. "I might have a solution…"

She turned to face him as he continued. "It gets the council what they want; it keeps you from having to order him to do something like that and…" His voice trailed off.

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_//Present//

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"Of course, I thought you had lost your mind." Iruka and Ibiki both looked up as Tsunade opened the door to Ibiki's office, dressed in a sweeping blue robe. A pair of ANBU took up stations outside the door as she closed it behind her. Her unbound hair hung loosely around her face and there were dark shadows under her eyes.

"Shouldn't you be sleeping, Hokage-sama?" Ibiki asked, his usually gruff voice softened

She rolled her eyes at him. "I should be. But in addition to the usual paper-pushing and bureaucratic bullcrap, I had a jounin try and kill a chuunin in the middle of the street today. There was a lot of talk to be dealt with."

Iruka flushed.

"By the way, Ibiki, schedule a psychological evaluation for the brat. His actions today had a lot of shinobi thinking he was going to break right there in a public street. I want them reassured." Tsunade sat down and swiped Ibiki's coffee mug. She tipped the contents of a small silver flask into the coffee and took a sip, settling back in the chair and staring at Iruka. "With what you asked me to do, I thought_ you_ were breaking… either that, or_ utterly _insane."

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//Flashback//

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Tsunade stared at the chuunin in disbelief as he finished explaining his plan to her. "Are you _mad_?"

Iruka shook his head. "It gives everyone what they want without the entanglements."

"What about you?"

Iruka chuckled softly. "It's not what I could wish for, but considering the circumstances, it's the best I can hope for. I want this, Tsunade-sama." His gaze was steady and uncompromising.

"We're talking at least a year away from the village, Iruka-sensei. Probably longer before you're able to travel safely."

Iruka nodded. "I understand and I know the risks."

"Do you really?"

"With Naruto being… well, Naruto… I kind of studied up on the subject. I know what could happen." He blushed and scratched the scar on the bridge of his nose.

"I don't want to endanger your life." Tsunade shook her head. "From all reports, you're one of the best teachers Konoha has. There has to be some other way."

"Not one that doesn't cause more complications. You know that as well as I do."

Tsunade knew that he could tell by her expression she hated the very thought even though she understood the necessity. "I… could send someone with you. Sakura-chan, perhaps."

Red stained his cheeks. _"No!_ I mean… I'd rather no one but you know the truth."

Tsunade resisted the urge to laugh at his mortification by the simple expedient of remembering that this could backfire horribly and cost her the life of one of Konoha's finest teachers. "Do you understand what I would have to do to accomplish this, Iruka-sensei? Exactly what I would have to do?" Silently, she hoped he didn't. It would make thing so much easier. "There would be no room for mistakes if I didn't, and the chances of a mistake would increase greatly as time passed."

Her faint hope crumbled as Iruka met her eyes steadily, one corner of his mouth curling up in a humorless smile. "You would have to seal me," he recited carefully. "I would be locked that way until you remove the seal."

Tsunade bit her lip in anguish. "More than that, I'm afraid," she said grimly. "For this to have any chance of working at all, let alone working properly, I would have to not only seal you into that jutsu, but seal your chakra as well. Maintaining the jutsu on a conscious level would burn up your chakra faster than you can replenish it. To do this, I would have to create an endless loop into the seal that would drain your chakra into maintaining the jutsu rather than you controlling the flow of your chakra. To do this would mean you would have no more chakra control than a civilian!"

She finished rather breathlessly, hoping he would see the error of his intentions.

"I do understand and I will go through with it, Hokage-sama."

Hopes dashed, Tsunade slumped. "Just – just tell me why?" Far from being the leader of the village, she felt like that long-ago genin again, pleading to understand.

"Because I have to."

She growled under her breath. _"You_… are an idiot. On your head be it."

She thought he would flinch away from her anger, but he was made of sterner stuff. His brown eyes sparkled with gratitude and something she could put no name to. He bowed deeply. "Thank you, Tsunade-sama. Thank you so much." His quicksilver grin eased her mind, if only a little bit.

Tsunade softened. "If it means so much to you to be the one to do this. But you're still an idiot," she added firmly.

"I know."


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter eight**

A/N: Thanks so much for all the lovely reviews! I try and respond to all the signed ones, so if I forgot you, poke me!** Important note at the end of this chapter. Please READ!

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_//Present//_

Kakashi prowled restlessly around the foot of the Hokage tower, carefully keeping just enough distance so as not to provoke his ANBU watchers. Iruka and Ibiki had been talking for hours and the light in the Torture specialist's office window had yet to go out.

He knew there was a lot that Iruka wasn't saying, (not that he'd said much at all on the matter in Kakashi's hearing) but there was so much he wanted… no, needed to know. So he lingered. And lingered some more, waiting with rapidly diminishing patience for Iruka to come out.

Iruka finally left the tower as dawn was lightening the eastern sky. He carried himself wearily, his shoulders sagging as if the weight of his chuunin vest were too heavy for him. The baby in his arms slept soundly, cradled close to Iruka's chest.

The jounin trailed after him, carefully keeping some distance between them. He was surprised when Iruka slowed to a stop and turned to face where he was hidden in the shadows of the buildings. "I promise, Kakashi-sensei, I will tell you soon. But for now, I need rest. I have a class to teach in less than three hours." With that he was gone, the displaced leaves of a jutsu swirling around where he had just been standing.

Kakashi blinked at the empty space where the chuunin had been, startled by the action. Annoyed, he headed back to the tower, wondering if Ibiki was still up and about. He was. Kakashi barely had time for a yelp as he dodged the flung kunai and the volley of shuriken that followed. A gloved hand grabbed his collar and dragged him unceremoniously into Ibiki's office.

"You do remember that Tsunade-sama trusts you not to do anything stupid, _right?_ So that begs the question, why are you still following Iruka-sensei around?"

Kakashi freed himself from Ibiki's grasp. "I haven't offered him any harm," he hissed.

Ibiki sighed and waved toward a chair. "Sit." He glanced toward the lightening sky, "I'm too damned old for this."

Kakashi remained standing and Ibiki leveled a threatening glare at him. "Sit down, Hatake, or I strap you down."

"While Anko might enjoy that sort of play, I'm not Anko." Kakashi snorted.

Ibiki's eyes narrowed dangerously. "I'm not in the mood. It's late and I'm damned tired."

"Now, don't be like that." Kakashi chuckled under his mask. "I know you and she have personally tested out every single torture device this village has. Izumo complained about the noise a couple of times."

A gloved fist slammed into the wall, mere centimeters from his head. Plaster cracked and gave way. Ibiki withdrew his hand, brushing off bits of drywall. "Listen up. Leave Iruka-sensei alone. When he wants to talk to you, he will. Until then, stay the hell away from him."

Kakashi snarled. "What's so important about one chuunin sensei that he's got both the Hokage and the head of Torture and Interrogation protecting him?"

Ibiki turned to stare at him, something strange in the expression that crossed his scarred face. "Gods, sometimes I forget that you can be so hard-headed. There are some things I can't tell you. I made a promise and I don't go back on my word."

Kakashi stared at him for a moment before sinking down into the chair he'd been offered. "So what _can_ you tell me?"

There was a snort of laughter from the specialist jounin. "Never can leave well enough alone, can you?" Ibiki stared at Kakashi for a long moment then sighed. "There's very little I can tell you, but what I can… The baby – Shimo – you're right. He does have Hatake blood."

"So there _was_ another Hatake!"

Ibiki shook his head. "I've said too much already."

"What? By telling me I'm not the last of my clan?!"

"No. You don't understand anything."

"Then tell me!" Kakashi started up from his chair. "Tell me the truth, damn it!"

He was too furious to flinch when Ibiki slammed a hand down on the table. "Listen to me, _brat_! I've already told you more than I should have. If I say more, I'll have betrayed the vow I gave Iruka-sensei and I will _not_ do that!"

Seething, Kakashi struggled to find words, but Ibiki's tired sigh surprised him. "I know you don't want to hear this, but it would be best if you got the whole story from Iruka-sensei. Honestly."

"But he hasn't told me anything!"

"He said he would tell you." Ibiki reminded him. "So he will. He's not one to go back on his word."

Grumbling, Kakashi had to admit the truth of that. Iruka had never gone back on his word in Kakashi's experience.

Ibiki shook his head. "Now go home and get some sleep before I toss you in a cell just so I can get some rest."

"You _would,_ wouldn't you?"

Ibiki chuckled dryly. "I don't lie, either."

He waited until classes at the academy were over before resuming his observation of Iruka-sensei. After the chunnin had shooed the last of his class of hellions out, Iruka stretched and tucked a handful of papers in a leather satchel. He looked up as a head poked in the open door. "Iruka-sensei?"

Kakashi moved closer to the window so he could hear everything instead of having to rely on his lip-reading skills.

Iruka smiled at his fellow teacher. "Hello, Noriko-sensei. What can I do for you?"

The red-haired chuunin blushed. "Just wanted to say we're all glad you're back. The academy hasn't been the same while you were away on your mission."

Iruka chuckled warmly. "In other words, you all got tired of having to put up with my lot while I was away!"

Noriko laughed. "That too. I swear you always get assigned the worst pranksters and troublemakers."

"Probably because I know how to deal with them, having been a bit of a prankster myself."

"Good point." She chuckled. "Hey, do you have mission room duty tonight? A bunch of us were going down to the bar. Like to join us? You know, a sensei's night out sort of thing?"

Iruka smiled at her but shook his head. "Thanks, but I can't. I have to pick Shimo up from Gai-sensei's place."

Noriko's eyes widened and she made a choking sound. "Gai-sensei? You're leaving Shimo with _him?"_

The corner of Iruka's mouth curled up in a wry grin. "More or less. Haven't you heard that Gai's been dating Shizune recently?"

The chuunin's expression relaxed. "I had heard, but I didn't think about that. So Shizune's watching Shimo?"

"Right." Iruka paused and gave her a soft smile. "Shizune's wonderful with him and Gai-sensei is an unexpected bonus."

Kakashi thought bitterly that he had a very good idea of what was going through Iruka's head at the time. _"…And Gai's there to protect him just in case a certain Jounin comes poking around."­_

"Maybe another time, Noriko-sensei." Iruka chuckled sheepishly and rubbed the scar on his nose. "And to be honest, I'm still adjusting to being away from Shimo for a long period of time. I-I've been with him ever since he was born."

The woman laughed and patted him on the shoulder. "New parent anxiety, huh? My sister was the same way when she had her first."

They said their goodbyes and Kakashi followed Iruka as the chuunin-sensei trotted towards the jounin apartments on the north end of town.

Iruka stopped at Gai's apartment door and tapped quietly. Kakashi winced in anticipation of the boisterous greeting… that never came.

Kakashi blinked at the subdued version of Konoha's Green Beast that opened the door. Gai was dressed in well-worn sweats and looked like he hadn't slept. "Iruka-sensei!"

Iruka took in Gai's rather abused look and frowned. "Oh, Gai-sensei! Has Shimo been that much trouble?"

"Not at all, Iruka-sensei." Shizune's voice spoke from behind Gai and she appeared in the doorway. "As a matter of fact, I just got him down for a nap." She grinned up at the jounin beside her. "Poor Gai's just not used to all the attention a baby this young demands."

Iruka chuckled. "Sorry, Gai-sensei."

Gai's usual brilliant smile was only a tad dimmer than usual. "No worries, Iruka-sensei, my esteemed colleague. It was an honor to watch over your youthful progeny on this glorious day!"

Shizune reached up and bopped Gai on the back of the head. "Stop talking like a recruiting poster and go get Shimo while I get his diaper bag."

"Of course, oh most lovely – "

"_What_ did I say?"

Iruka waited until Gai had retreated into the apartment before bursting into stifled laughter. "You have certainly tamed him."

Shizune blushed prettily before stepping aside to wave Iruka inside. "He doesn't always talk like that, just when there's an audience."

Kakashi waited patiently until Iruka emerged, holding his son and a diaper bag, and thanking Gai and Shizune profusely. As Iruka headed back toward his own apartment, the Copy-nin took the high road, leaping from rooftop to rooftop as he followed. Twice Iruka had turned to look directly at him and both times there had been a strange expression on his face, some mix of sorrow and fear and anger and more emotions than he could put name to. But rather than confronting him, the man had just turned and continued on his way.

He paused outside a food-stall for a long moment, as if debating whether or not to pick up something for dinner and then shook his head and continued on his way. Kakashi held an internal debate for all of twenty seconds before dropping down and strolling into the stall. He remembered Naruto rambling on and on about how Iruka would take him out for ramen, but he had to search hard to remember what else the brash teen had said the chuunin liked. He ordered several of the things he could recall and as soon as they were ready, hurried off after the chuunin-sensei.

Iruka had already made it home by the time the reached the small apartment and Kakashi hesitated on the rooftop where just last night he had spied on the chuunin. Iruka had set everything down but the sleeping infant and was singing softly to the baby. Kakashi could barely hear him, but managed to catch a few words in Iruka's gentle voice. "…always there to catch you when you're falling, always there to stand you up again…"

Kakashi started when the chuunin looked up, Iruka's bark-brown eyes finding him at once. He sighed and shifted Shimo's weight from one shoulder to the other, using his newly freed hand to open the window. He leaned out and spoke in a voice that sounded sad and tired. "You just won't let it be, will you, Kakashi-sensei?"

Kakashi stared at the brown-haired chuunin for a moment. "I can't.'

Iruka returned the stare for a second before laughing wryly. "I should have known better. Come in if you're coming." He stepped back from the window to give the jounin room to leap to the sill.

Kakashi held up the bag of take out, feeling somehow sheepish. "I come bearing food."

Iruka snorted air through his nose and headed for the kitchen. "I'll make some tea."

Kakashi followed the chuunin into the cozy space, setting the bag of food on the table, and watching Iruka's spare, economical movements with interest. There was something familiar in the way he moved and it had little to do with their shared background of ninja training.

Iruka glanced back at him and with a pained sigh, offered him the drowsing infant. "Here. At least you know how to hold him correctly. I thought Gai-sensei was going to drop him and run screaming in terror when Shimo started fussing." He frowned. "Don't think this means that I trust you. Don't ever think it. You make one move I don't like and I promise, jounin or not, I'll have you on the floor before you can even blink."

Kakashi folded his arms around the baby, wondering idly why Iruka's chalkdust and cinnamon scent seemed so familiar. He ignored the gruff threats, absorbed in the tiny body slumbering in his arms. He lowered his head to press his masked face against the crown of Shimo's head, burying his nose in the down thatch of pale hair. He inhaled, branding the scent of clean, warm skin into his memory.

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Iruka watched him with trepidation, remembering that Kakashi, like his nin-dogs, had an incredible sense of smell. What could he learn from Shimo's scent? Shivering, he returned his attention to measuring the tea leaves into the pot.

When the tea was ready he set it on the table and motioned Kakashi to sit. The jounin obeyed and Iruka busied himself pouring tea and setting out the take-out that he was sure he would never eat. Shimo remained cradled in Kakashi's lap, now sleeping soundly. There was something possessive in the jounin's posture that unnerved Iruka and made him want to snatch his son back.

He controlled the urge by tightening his fingers on the teacup. "Do I even have to ask why you're here?"

Finally, Kakashi looked up from the infant in his lap. "No more than I have to tell you what I want to know."

Iruka laughed sadly, setting his untouched teacup down. "Yes. We both know the answers to that."

"Will you tell me?"

Rising, Iruka went to the open window and shut it firmly, staring into the dusk for a long moment before drawing the curtains. "Your senses are better than mine," he said at last. "Is there anyone close enough to hear something they shouldn't?"

Stretching out his awareness, Kakashi caught flares of chakra from the neighbors downstairs and from the young ANBU who was his constant watchdog. "No."

Iruka's hands flashed up in a series of seals, moving so quickly Kakashi didn't get more than two thirds of them. He felt the flow of chakra surrounding the apartment change and settle into a new shape, that even from the inside looked undisturbed and placidly normal. "Now we can talk. They'll only hear innocuous conversation if they get close enough to listen."

Wondering how on earth a chuunin-sensei knew a jutsu like that and if he could get Iruka to repeat it when he had his Sharingan uncovered, Kakashi looked up at the pacing teacher. "Hn?"

Iruka stopped and leaned against the wall. "So you want to know my _dirty little secret_ then?" He sighed, but the look in his eyes was wild and more than a little feral. "I'll tell you, but I won't guarantee you'll like knowing it."

Iruka straightened up and began a series of signs, at least the first of which Kakashi knew well. Naruto had tried to surprise him with _that_ jutsu more than once.

Smoke billowed around Iruka and when it was gone, in his place stood a young woman dressed in a plain blue yukata. Her brown hair hung around her ears and in place of a scar, she had a nose that was just slightly crooked, like it had been broken once and never reset. Bright brown eyes stared at him with a sort of wary expectation. Kakashi dropped his teacup as he vividly recalled the last time he had seen those eyes; glazed with passion in a flushed face as he thrust inside her…

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Author's note: I know you all want to kill me for the ending of this chapter... again. But first I have some things to say.

I credit the idea of Shizune dating Gai-sensei to **aiden_bard** from her fic **"Iruka's Obsession,"** and cause I like the idea of Shizune able to cope with his crazed personality (I had a hard time writing in GAI-SPEAK, so if I fail, please tell me, cause concrit is good for a writer) Secondly, and most important, I need all of your help for a scene in the next chapter! If you can't guess, the next chapter contains heterosexual acts. Should I post an edited version here or the uncut version? Please drop a line about this when you review! Thank you so much!

Also, any guesses on this lullaby?


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter Nine**

A/N- on deliberation, I decided to post the unedited version of this chapter here. There is some sexual content of a heterosexual and soft-core nature. I will clearly mark the part you can skip if this offends you. A very great deal is integral to the story, so I will give you fair warning that there will be some sexual interaction even prior to the marked area. I try not to offend anyone and to be honest, this part is fairly tame. Comment and critique is always welcome.

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_//Flashback//  
_

It was in the red-light district; a bathhouse with no pretensions that its attendants did not cater to _'other needs.' _He had first come here after an ANBU mission, weary and filthy. The madam _(like the bathhouse, she did not pretend to be anything but what she was)_ had let him in and dragged him to the baths herself, muttering all the while about stupid shinobi who didn't have the sense to take care of themselves after a mission. That had been the first time.

It had not been the last.

"Obaasan." Kakashi greeted her wearily.

"Tch." She scolded. "You come home in worse and worse shape every time. One of these times, if you are not careful, you will not come home at all."

"Maa, you worry too much."

"And you worry not at all."

Imperiously summoning a girl, she had told her to get him cleaned up and soaking in one of the tubs while she saw if the kitchen had any food.

The girl, dressed in a plain blue yukata, had been briskly impersonal as she stripped him out of his filthy clothing and began washing the blood from his silver hair. She had not tried to remove his mask, though it was stained with blood and less pleasant things. She had puzzled over it for a moment before handing him a strip of toweling and turning her back politely. He had replaced the mask with the toweling and added the mask to the filthy pile of his clothing.

The girl was brisk and efficient as she washed the blood from his pale skin, pausing only to examine any wound she uncovered. "This one will need stitches, Shinobi-san." She said as she gently cleaned a long tear along his ribs. "Shall I call for a doctor?"

He shook his head gruffly. "There's silk thread and a sterilized needle in my medkit," he said, pointing at his discarded vest. She hurried to fetch it and brought it to where he slumped wearily on the bath stool. She showed no signs of squeamishness as he directed her to smooth on a deadening ointment and stitch him up, like he was a torn sleeve.

She was quick and ruthlessly efficient as she stitched the gash closed. He would almost have taken her for a ninja with the speed and neatness of her stitch-work. "I will bandage it, then, when you get out of the tub, Shinobi-san."

The madam had come back, trailed by a kitchen-boy laden with food, while the girl stitched him up and he blinked sluggishly at the array of food. His stomach growled, pleased by the smell of something that was not a ration bar or game half charred over a tiny campfire. The girl hurried to finish bathing him and at a wave from the madam, turned her back so he could eat.

The madam, who was one of the few people ever to see him unmasked, lingered as he began to eat with neat, quick bites. "I have laid out a futon for you in a private room, young one. You will stay here tonight and report in the morning. I have seen to it that the Hokage knows where you are."

"Thank you, Obaasan. You are too kind."

"Hah." She snorted under her breath. "You come in and ask for nothing but a bath, paying enough for the services of my girls, but asking for none. You simply clean up and take yourself off. I will suffer you a bed for the night." She rose and gathered up his clothing, leaving the contents of his many pockets in a basin. "I will have these cleaned for you. They will be ready in the morning. Umi will show you where you may sleep." She nodded at the girl, still sitting stiffly with her back turned to the shinobi.

She left him then, telling the girl which room to take him to when he had finished his bath. He finished eating and slipped into the steaming water. It stung in his many cuts and scrapes, but he could feel the heat of it soothing overused muscles. He sank to his chin. "You can turn around now, Umi-chan – wasn't it?"

"Yes." She turned and hurriedly began cleaning up the remains of his meal, a flush coloring her tanned cheeks. Her movements were sure, though stiff with tension as she laid out a robe for him as well as a pile of fluffy towels. He took note of how she flinched and glanced away every time the water splashed.

"Relax," He sighed. "You won't find many customers as tolerant as I of your lack of seduction techniques."

Her flush deepened and she rubbed nervously at the bridge of her nose. "I'm afraid you are very much mistaken, Shinobi-san. I am only a maid here. I am too plain to be much of anything, much less one of the bath girls." There was a tiny hint of bitterness in her words. "The other girls are all entertaining other guests and Madam called me only because she had no one else to come."

He chuckled dryly. "My mistake, Umi-chan. I would rather have your polite presence than one of those other girls, who would be too interested in seeing what is beneath my mask. Now relax. I just got back from a mission and all that twitching is making me jumpy."

Umi flushed. "My apologies, Shinobi-san."

"Hn. No worries."

She looked away. "You are far too kind, Shinobi-san. The madam has left some sake for you. Would you like some?"

He pondered for a moment. He was still too tightly wound; far too alert for danger. If he were to not see everything as a threat, he would need to come down from his keyed-up status. He could do a lot of damage to the bathhouse and its guests if something set his danger sense off. "Yes."

Umi brought the floating tray with its warmed bottle of sake and poured a cup for him. He accepted it and took the bottle to pour her a drink. She shook her head. "I can't! The sake is only for guests, Shinobi-san. The madam will be furious if she catches me drinking."

He pressed the cup into her fingers. "Consider it part of your duty, Umi-chan. I still see a threat behind every smile. Prove to me that it is safe to drink."

She looked startled, but obediently tipped the drink into her mouth. "It is only sake, Shinobi-san."

Satisfied, he drank, savoring the smooth flavor and the slow burn of the alcohol. The madam had brought out some of her best.

By the time he had judged he was drunk enough not to jump at shadows, the sky had finished shading to black outside the small window. He pulled himself from the bathwater and accepted the towel Umi held out for him. She offered the robe next, face politely averted.

He took the opportunity to study her through a pleasant haze of alcohol. She wasn't as classically pretty as the girls employed for their other talents. Her figure was as wiry as a shinobi's, with small breasts and lean waist above a flare of hips. She had a generous mouth and a slender nose that had been broken at sometime in the past and never set properly. Her eyes were chocolate brown, set in a tanned face that spoke of years spent outdoors.

She shoved dark brown hair behind an ear in a way that said she was more comfortable with it pinned back out of her way. "Shinobi-san?" She asked hesitantly, glancing up at him as he tied the sash of his robe.

"The room?"

_"Oh!"_ She flushed again. "I'm so sorry!"

She led him up a flight of stairs, past the bathing rooms where the other girls performed their business. He noted with amusement how she flushed at some of the particularly explicit sounds coming from some of them.

The room was larger than he expected with a generous sized futon already laid out. Umi hurried to fold back the covers for him.

"Rest well, Shinobi-san."

He found himself staring fixedly at the sweet curve of her hips as she bent over the bed. It had been a very long time and a very trying and dangerous mission. His blood was already up and the alcohol he had imbibed made it that much worse.

"I think…" He said with careful deliberation. "I am about to do something very stupid."

He was suddenly right next to her. She made a muffled sound of protest as he toppled her onto the futon she was preparing. Muffled, because he had wrapped his arms around her and pressed her face into his shoulder. _"S-Shinobi-san!"_ Wide-eyed, she struggled in his embrace. "What are you doing? P-please let me go!"

He refused to relinquish his hold on her and slipped a hand into the loose folds of her yukata. She gasped as his fingers cupped the curve of her small breast. "Please, Shinobi-san, s-stop. I-I am not one of the bathhouse girls!"

Her nipple hardened against his palm as he gently stroked the soft, delicate skin, and she began to arch into the touch even as she protested. "That's fine, Umi-chan. I don't want one of the bathhouse girls."

She struggled in his grasp, breath catching in her throat and shuddering as his fingers played down the concave plane of her stomach, scarred fingertips catching on the smooth, unblemished skin. "P-please, Shinobi-s-san… I am not _experienced_ enough to satisfy your desires." She strained toward the door. "I-if you will allow, I will ask my mistress if one of the girls is free to tend to your needs."

"I don't need one of the others. You are here to tend my needs." He eyed her hungrily. "Obaasan did call you here to serve me."

She went the color of a cherry. "Not like that, Shinobi-san! I am only a maid. I am neither beautiful nor trained enough to serve your… _desires…"_ The last word was said on a breathy whisper as his hand slipped between her legs to rest gently on the mound of her sex.

He regarded her frankly. "You are not beautiful in the classic, carefully-tended way those girls are, but there is a vibrancy and a life in you that is very appealing." He rested his masked nose against hers. "I like the character your nose gives you. And I can provide all the training you'll need."

He lifted the strip of toweling enough to allow him to suck on the tender skin behind her ear. Her voice became a breathy moan composed of equal parts desire and shame. "I like that life in you." He spoke against her skin, causing shudders to ripple through her lean frame. "I have seen enough death to crave that spark of vitality." He brushed his lips down the sweep of her throat, earning another shiver and tiny moan. "But if you really don't want this, say so and I will let you go."

She trembled but met his gaze. "Show me what to do?"

"Of course."

She was tentative, but oh-so-responsive to his roaming hands. "Ohh…!"

Kakashi paused as she shivered against him. As virginal as she acted… He reached for his abandoned pack. She watched with uncomprehending eyes as he pulled out his med-kit. After a moment of rummaging, he offered her a white tablet no larger than his smallest fingernail. "Take this."

Still trembling, she took the pill from his fingers and looked at it curiously. "W-what?"

He pressed a cup of the sake he had carried up to the room into her hand. "A remedy to prevent pregnancy. We'll get nothing but pleasure from tonight."

Her smile was tremulous as she slipped the pill into her mouth and washed it down with the sake. "Thank you, Shinobi-san." Her voice quavered.

"Shh." He pressed his covered lips to her bare shoulder. "You should relax. Show me that shy smile again."

She smiled tentatively and let him pull her close again. One hand crept up his shoulder to thread in his damp hair, the gesture oddly tender.

"Show me." She said again, her smile bright this time. "Please?"

He caressed her tanned skin, thinking she reminded him of what there was still good in life. She smelled of soap and cinnamon, bringing to mind a morning not all that long ago when Naruto's laughter had drawn him like metal to a lodestone. He found himself outside the blonde boy's window, where Naruto and Sakura were laughing; both spattered with batter and dusted with flour. Sasuke, also decorated, was scowling at both of them as a chuckling Iruka scolded them laughingly as he flipped a pancake onto a plate.

It had been the carefree laughter that had drawn him in. He had not known then that would be the last time he would hear that particular sound from his students. It was not long after that Sasuke had left Konoha, and his team shattered. What little brightness that remained in his fucked-up life was gone.

Gentle fingers smoothed over his closed eye, ghosting over the scar and dragging him out of his reverie. Gentle brown eyes met his single one. "You asked me to smile; can I ask the same of you? I can't stand to see you hurting."

He managed a laugh. "You can see me frowning?" He tugged on the strip of toweling that had replaced his mask.

She smiled and touched his fingers. "I don't need to see beneath your mask. I can see the pain in your eye."

He slipped her fingertips beneath the cloth and kissed them. She sighed and relaxed against him.

He smiled beneath the mask and lowered his hand to caress her breast again.

**~~~Sex scene begins here~~~**

She made a small, breathy sound as his fingers skimmed down her flat abdomen. Her hands remained in his hair, as if she were unsure what to do with them. "You can touch me too, you know." He whispered against her shoulder. Obediently, her hands moved down his shoulders, smoothing over scarred skin and taunt muscle like she was memorizing the feel of him.

She bit down on her bottom lip to stifle a startled cry as one of his hands delved lower again, palm resting on the gentle mound between her thighs. As one finger delved past the lips of her sex, she tossed her head back with a surprised mewl. Her body instinctively surged up off the futon, lips opening in a startled 'o.'

Faint sounds spilled from her lips as he pressed his finger deeper into the heat between her legs. It was more than clear she was a virgin, but she reacted like she had never touched herself. Smiling, he slid his body further down hers, parting her yukata completely as he went. Her head jerked up like a startled deer. _"Wha-?"_

She choked on a strangled gasp as he lowered his head and tugged the mask down to press his lips to the folds of her labia. He had to use his weight to pin her hips to the futon after the first taste, because she writhed in ways that really had no place outside of Icha Icha-induced fantasies. He shifted, letting her legs rest on his shoulders as he teased the center of her pleasure with gentle fingers and tongue. It took almost no time at all for her first orgasm to sweep her away, legs convulsing around his ears as she stifled a scream with a fist pressed to her lips.

_"Ooo-oh…!" _She moaned around the fleshy gag and he grinned. Nice to know his technique hadn't suffered from his recent celibacy. He didn't allow her to come down from the peak before he found a new way to tease her, slipping a single finger into the wet, welcoming heat of her. Her heels dug into his shoulderblades as he continued the tormenting with both mouth and fingers.

"P-please…_ Oh –_ I…" She babbled incoherently, legs tightening vise-like around him. He added another finger and she broke apart at the seams again, thrusting her hips against his hand. Her voice devolved into wordless sounds of pleading, body arching off the bedding with force of the wave of pleasure that swept through her. Tugging his mask back into place, he repositioned her writhing form, sliding back up until his weight rested on her breasts and belly. She moaned and buried her face into the shoulder he offered her.

Her soft cries had done a number on him; he was hard as a rock and aching with the need to be buried in her. Nevertheless, he gritted his teeth and eased into position, her legs wrapping around his hips and the head of his cock just nudging the wet heat of her. He took a deep breath as he slid home, feeling her untried body tightening up around him. Her teeth pressed against his clavicle to stifle a pained cry. He fought the urge down to take his own pleasure and stilled, seated to the hilt inside of her. Her legs were clamped tight around his hips in an instinctive response to the pain.

"Shh-shh," he soothed, the hand that wasn't supporting most of his weight stroking her breasts and sides to soothe her. She whimpered softly until he began to move slowly, his thrusts controlled and steady. Before long she was arching into him with each thrust, her own soft cries rising to meet his nearly silent grunts. She was so tight around him that it was all he could do to keep himself under control long enough to ease her past the pain and into the realm of mindless pleasure he was rapidly approaching. Sweat gleamed on their skin, the slip and slide of hot skin making his movements more frantic. Suddenly she thrust hard into him, the muscles of her passage stroking and milking him as she locked her legs around his hips in a death-grip. Unable to hold back, he came hard, the world going white as he groaned and spilled his seed.

With a rumble of satisfaction, he collapsed across her, muscles going slack in the aftermath of such intense pleasure. He almost welcomed the darkness that dragged him down into its embrace.

**~~~End sex scene~~~**

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Umi waited until Kakashi was soundly asleep before disentangling herself from his grip. He'd never even felt the bite of the drugged senbon that she'd had concealed in one sleeve. The aphrodisiac in the sake, colorless and tasteless, had done its job. Silently, she pulled her rumpled yukata back on and swiftly cleaned up the evidence of her presence, making sure that she had the pill she'd palmed earlier. Stopping for just a moment, she trailed fingers through silver-white hair. Sighing, she rose and padded swiftly across the wood flooring. She slipped out of the room and had to stifle a yip when the Madam appeared in the darkness of the hallway.

"Did you get what you came for then?" The old woman asked, shrewd eyes resting on the lean figure sprawled on the futon.

"Yes. Thank you for your cooperation."

"Hn. I don't hold with all this deception. But I'm not fool enough to go against the Hokage's orders. Will he sleep the rest of the night?"

Umi nodded. "The drug on the senbon should wear off in about six hours. He'll probably sleep until well after sunrise. He'll have a bit of a head, but that's more due to the amount of sake than the sedative."

"And if you've lost me one of my best customers…" The madam let the threat die unfinished. "And what would you have me tell him if he comes back looking for you?"

Umi flushed. "I doubt he'll do that, but tell him I've gone to live with relatives in another town."

With another nod, she took her leave of the madam and hurried into the night, heading for the center of town as fast as two shaky legs would carry her. Umi stopped at the foot of the Hokage's tower, passing a scroll to one of the two ANBU standing guard. Shizune must have been waiting, for she was at the door almost before the ANBU was gone. She ushered her into a small examination room and went to fetch Tsunade.

Like Shizune, Tsunade must have been waiting for the summons, for she appeared within moments. "Iruka-sensei?"

Iruka let the mannerisms of Umi the maid slip away and bowed to Tsunade. "Hokage-sama."

"Did it go well?" Tsunade motioned for Iruka to lose the yukata and get on the table.

"As well as can be expected." Iruka answered, stretching out carefully on the table. He couldn't deny that he was hurting. And the pain was not entirely physical. Tsunade's hands glowed with a soothing warmth as she examined him. "I filled a need."

Tsunade's hazel eyes saddened. "Iruka…"

"Please." Iruka's voice was soft; pleading. "Just don't."

Tsunade went back to her examination, hands steady on the chuunin's abdomen. "He could have been gentler. There's more tearing than there should be."

Iruka managed a snort that didn't sound too off. "He was as gentle as he could be. I knew there would be pain." Of both kinds, he added silently.

Tsunade huffed, but her hands remained gentle. "There. It's done. You've conceived and I gave the embryo a boost to make sure it's settled properly in the womb."

Iruka sighed and rested a hand on his stomach. _"Mine…"_ he whispered.

Tsunade heaved a sigh and rested a hand on his shoulder. "You'll rest here tonight. I'll check you again in the morning, before you and Shizune leave Konoha. There's a place set up for you. It's by the sea. I think you'll like it."

For the first time in over a month, Iruka smiled. "Thank you, Hokage-sama."

"Don't thank me. I'd sooner not have to do this." Tsunade settled down in a chair. "You'll be safe there. It's well within our borders and no one will know who you are or what you carry. Shizune will check on you regularly and report any problems to me at once. I'll make certain I can get away when the time comes. I'd rather be there just in case something goes wrong. This can still go wrong in so many ways, you know." At Iruka's steely-eyed look, she shook her head. "I've set up funds for you to get what you need until it's time you can come back."

Iruka nodded. "Thank you again."

Tsunade sighed again, looking weary. "One of the hawks goes with you in case of an emergency when Shizune's not around. Turn her loose and she'll head straight home. I'll know to come."

Iruka listened patiently as she explained everything she'd done to insure his safety and sighed when she left him alone for the night. Shizune lingered long enough to point out the attached bath and hand him towels and a fresh shirt to sleep in. Numbly, Iruka cleaned up, washing the evidence of what he'd done away. But there was a stain that no amount of soap and water would wash clean.

Dressing, he curled on his side in the narrow bed, his unfamiliar body feeling awkward. There was no more physical pain, thanks to Tsunade, but he felt like he was trapped in a body two sizes too small; one that had curves and angles in all the wrong places. He'd had to adjust to moving a body with hips too wide and canted at an unfamiliar angle. His shoulders were narrower and he had to consciously tilt back just a little to compensate for the strange weight of breasts. Tsunade had lectured him and given him books on the changes his body would be undergoing later. Iruka stifled a wry laugh. He'd barely have gotten used to this new body before it started changing to accommodate the new life growing inside it.

He sighed, resting a hand on his stomach, feeling fiercely protective now that Tsunade assured him that he'd conceived the Copy-nin's child. He would do anything to protect his child. If that meant never telling Kakashi what he'd done, so be it. He gritted his teeth and curled tighter around the new life growing inside his altered body. Even if Kakashi hated him…

He fell asleep telling himself that the fierce burning behind his eyelids was merely from weariness.

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**Authors notes:** (not that anyone actually reads these much) I credit the idea of Kakashi visiting a _bathhouse_ to the doujinshi "Jealousy" by Hi-liang.

And yes, there is reasoning behind the fact that Kakashi lets down his guard there. It's a place in a shinobi village. Obviously the madam and the girls know that a large portion of their customer base will be shinobi just back from missions and know how to deal with them. The madam is someone he obviously trusts (he let her see his face and he calls her Obaasan-- a term of respect) and it's well known that Kakashi hates hospitals, so I imagine if it isn't a urgent S-class that nearly killed him, he would go there first, knowing he'll get a bath and some first aid that he might not have the energy to do for himself.

_Obaasan_ is a term of respect for an older woman.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter Ten

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A/N: I'd like to thank everyone for their responses on the last chapter. I tried to keep things as soft-core as possible. I'm thrilled that so many people seem to like this story so much, especially some authors' whose work I've been reading since I first got into the fandom. (you know who you are!) As always, comment and criticism are welcome. I'll try to respond to all signed reviews! If you left an anonymous review, know that I do appreciate your input as well! Special thanks to **Stinky_horowitz** on LJ for pointing out a major mistake that has since been fixed! Worship stinky, for she _is_ a beta-god!

eve- Yes I do have more stories and I will be posting those here! Thanks for your interest.

Aoh- Glad to fill your idle hours. Maybe it's Iruka's soap? He doesn't have to hide his scent from enemy ninjas so he can use scented soaps. ~shrugs~ At least he doesn't smell like flowers or something equally as girly. I like the small of cinnamon. It's a warm, earthy smell.

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Iruka released the henge and waited for Kakashi to get over his shock, every muscle tense and ready. His fingers itched toward the kunai in his pouch, but he refused to draw them until Kakashi made the first move. Of course, he might be dead by then, but it wasn't wise to provoke the Copy-nin more than necessary.

"Y-you? That was you?" Kakashi's voice gave away nothing.

"Yes." Iruka waited for the explosion. He forced himself not to flinch as Kakashi turned his gaze down to the baby sleeping peacefully in his lap, unaware of the tension crackling between the two adults.

"So…" Kakashi's voice was tightly controlled. "Shimo is my son… and yours?"

Iruka nodded. He swallowed, fingering the two thin senbon needles stashed in the hem of his chuunin vest. If Kakashi attacked him, there was no guarantee that he could even manage to draw one of them before the man reached him, but he felt better knowing that he would die fighting. He felt for the thread of chakra that he had bound into the justsu around his apartment. One good pulse of chakra along the conduit would cause the whole thing to unravel, and alert the ANBU that was watching over Kakashi.

"I think, Iruka-sensei," The copy-nin stated in a deadly quiet voice. "That I would like an explanation."

Iruka shivered at the lethal promise in that statement. "And you deserve to know the truth. I'm sorry I kept it from you for so long."

Kakashi simply stared at him, but Iruka kept his eyes on his son, sleeping in the lap of the deadliest man in Konoha. Keeping his voice low and controlled, he repeated what had happened in the Hokage's office a little over a year ago. He watched Kakashi's hands tighten into fists and had to fight the urge to snatch Shimo away as he described the council's manipulation of Tsunade.

"So should I ask how you go roped into this?" Kakashi's tone was pulled as tight as a wire trap.

"I volunteered." Iruka said plainly. Now he looked down at his lap, unable to meet that piercing gray eye. "If you couldn't guess from the jutsu I put around my apartment, I know a few things that most chuunin don't. When I was a child I memorized several forbidden jutsu. One is designed to be a perfect infiltration device. It makes the changes created by a henge real and solid. It's a true transformation jutsu, with the added ability that you can be practically anyone, so long as you can henge into their form." He laughed a little bitterly. "It hurts like hell to use."

Iruka studied the sleeping baby, unwilling to look up and fearing what he might see in that masked face. "Tsunade didn't want to order you to do something like that and refused to take what was needed from you to impregnate someone in secret. So I asked her to let me…" Iruka felt his lips twist up in a humorless smile. "I followed you for a month before I allowed Tsunade to seal me into the jutsu. I had to be sealed, because if I slipped at all, I would kill both myself and… Shimo."

When Kakashi said nothing, Iruka sighed and continued. "I found out that after long missions, when you weren't too badly injured, you would visit a certain bathhouse in the red-light district. I thought that would be the perfect opportunity to do what needed to be done. Imagine my surprise, when the madam said that you never once hired the services of her girls."

Kakashi said nothing, and Iruka dared a sideways glance at his face. The single eye was fixed on Shimo and suddenly panic filled Iruka's chest. Kakashi could _not_ take Shimo from him. He'd sooner die than give up his son! From the moment Tsunade had assured him that he had conceived, he'd known that nothing could induce him to give up his child. He'd go missing nin before he let the council take his son. He'd fight a losing battle against the Copy-nin to protect Shimo.

He almost reached out and snatched the child from Kakashi's lap, but the eye flashed up and froze him in place. He had a feeling that Kakashi knew everything he had been thinking. His heart contracted painfully in his chest, reminding him of the bleak despair that had settled over him during his willing exile. He had lied to Kakashi, to the whole village. There was little he could do to restore the trust that he had shattered.

Kakashi's steely eye fixed him with a glare, and Iruka couldn't help but remember the single time that eye had regarded him with desire and maybe a little affection. He would never see that look again.

"You…" Kakashi began.

Suddenly Iruka couldn't take it anymore. "Yes, I lied to you. _Yes_, I deliberately took advantage of you to get Shimo. The Hokage had two untenable choices, so I took it out of her hands by coming up with a third option. I enlisted her help in it, but the plan was all mine!" He blurted. Somewhere deep inside he was anticipating the feel of the jounin's hands around his throat, the sickening snap that would end his lies once and for all.

"Why?" The single word sounded as if it were gritted out through clenched teeth.

Iruka shivered in spite of himself, feeling the growing pressure of Kakashi's chakra against his own. Against his better judgment, he spoke. "Because neither of the other options were feasible. What would you do if Tsunade ordered you to father a child? What would your reaction be if you found she had taken a sample from you to impregnate a council flunky?"

"And what you did was _so_ _much better?_" Kakashi's words stung like the lash they were supposed to be.

"No." Iruka bit back. "I know my choices were no better than that, but I couldn't see your child being controlled by the council. Would you want your own blood to wind up being another Itachi or even Sasuke, for Kami's sake?"

He never saw the Copy-nin move, but suddenly he was pinned to the wall by a brutal arm across his throat. Frantically, he looked for Shimo, finding his son still asleep, undisturbed by his abrupt removal from Kakashi's lap to the couch.

"_How dare you?"_ Kakashi hissed. There was fury in his visible eye, rage tempered by sorrow almost as great as Iruka's own.

Without his conscious control, his hand rose up to cup the masked cheek just below that blazing eye. "It's not your failure, Kakashi-sensei. If it's anyone's, it's mine for letting him pass the genin exams without a full psychiatric evaluation. I knew he was damaged inside by the slaughter of his clan, but I allowed myself to hope that pairing him up with Naruto and Sakura would ease his lust for revenge. You didn't fail him."

"I taught him the jutsu that nearly killed Naruto, or did you forget that?" Kakashi hissed.

Iruka swallowed and wished the pressure on his throat would ease. It was getting harder and harder to breathe. "No. I have never forgotten that. But a jutsu is just another tool, like a kunai, in a shinobi's hand. It's all in how we decide to use them."

Suddenly, he was free and his knees buckled under him. Kakashi slammed a gloved fist into the wall, his single visible eye narrowed and the skin around it drawn tight. The sudden noise woke Shimo, who wailed, and Iruka lurched toward the couch, suddenly sure the shrill noise would make Kakashi snap into more violence. He had barely made it two steps when Shimo was in Kakashi's arms.

Something in Iruka broke and he was suddenly in the frame of mind he called 'mission mode.' His mind was going too fast for him to actually process thoughts, the world retreating to a series of disjointed images as he analyzed the enemy and how best to disable him. His wrist snapped out and Kakashi dodged a kunai, and right into the path of the second. He managed to twist aside, but the chuunin was on him in a flurry of swift taijutsu kicks that he struggled to block.

"Iruka-sensei – "

Iruka's face had gone disturbingly blank and Kakashi realized that the man was willing to fight until his opponent went down or he himself was dead or disabled. "Iruka-sensei!" He tried again, only barely managing to avoid being backed into the narrow hallway of the chuunin-sensei's apartment. Iruka was aiming to wound or disable, and Kakashi realized it was because of Shimo. He dared not try for any deadly blows because of the risk of hurting the baby. "Stop it!"

He leapt to avoid a sweeping kick and Shimo wailed louder in his arms. Iruka snatched up a small table and flung it at Kakashi's legs as he came down. Kakashi had to use his chakra to avoid losing his balance, and that was a nearly fatal mistake. A blade skimmed across his thigh and he winced at the hot, bright pain of it. He had to get in close, too close for combat weapons. He ducked another lunge and while Iruka was still in the extend, did something stupid, knowing it would get him hurt again. He bulled forward, attempting to pin the chuunin to the wall. He felt another kunai lodge in his arm but managed to pin Iruka. "Damn it, Iruka-sensei, stop this! You're going to hurt Shimo!"

Iruka blinked and went slack, life coming back to his eyes even as they started swimming with tears. "Don't hurt my son, Kakashi, please." Kakashi stepped back but Iruka remained where he was, his hands coming up in a pleading gesture. "Don't take Shimo away!"

Kakashi had to recoup for a moment. Iruka had actually thought he would hurt Shimo? No. It wasn't the fear for his son's safety, but the fear that the jounin would take the baby away from him. Iruka looked surprisingly fragile, like he might break apart if that were to happen.

"Sit down, Iruka-sensei. I think we need to talk." He surrendered Shimo into those reaching arms, watching as relief filled brown eyes and the tender way the other man cradled the infant, soothing his fright away. If he hadn't seen it before, he knew now that Iruka loved his small son in a way that put his well-being ahead of anything else, even the chuunin's own life.

Wincing as stabs of pain from his injuries made themselves known; Kakashi followed Iruka back to the couch. He yanked the kunai from his bicep and was using teeth and his other hand to try and bind the wound when gentle hands stopped him, Iruka had set Shimo in a small cradle that Kakashi hadn't noticed before and come to his side. He used a fresh kunai to cut the ruined sleeve away and used the wad of cloth to staunch the blood. "Hold this."

Kakashi obeyed and watched, bemused, as Iruka retreated to the kitchen and returned with a bowl of water, bandages and a first aid kit. He knelt next to where Kakashi sat and began cleaning the wound. Kakashi was uncomfortably reminded of when Iruka had done this for him before, under the guise of Umi the maid. Iruka's hands were just as deft now as they were then, fingertips warm as they pressed the edges of the wound closed so he could apply pieces of tape to hold it closed. He swiftly bandaged the arm and looked uncomfortably at the narrow gash high on the jounin's thigh.

Kakashi allowed himself a smirk, feeling like it was time for a little payback of his own. "Want me to drop my pants for this, Iruka-sensei? After all, it's not like you haven't seen it before."

Red flamed across the scar but Iruka stiffened his shoulders and nodded. "It will be easier to bandage that way."

Surprised, Kakashi didn't move. Iruka scowled at him and suddenly henged into the form of Umi. "Or would you rather I look this way?" His voice was bitter.

Kakashi managed a careless sounding grunt, startled by Iruka's willingness to give as good as he got. "Drop the henge, Iruka-sensei, and then I'll drop my pants for you."

Iruka snorted, but let the henge dissolve. Kakashi forced himself to lower his black pants, grateful that he never went commando anymore. Iruka waited until he sat back down and neatly treated the wound he had inflicted. Kakashi tried not to flinch as Iruka wrapped gauze around his thigh. He was the damned Copy-nin, and had no reason to flinch from Iruka. But part of him wanted to, very badly.

Iruka finished treating him and carried the rest of his supplies back to the kitchen as Kakashi pulled his pants back up.

Iruka sat down, one hand resting protectively (possessively?) on the edge of Shimo's cradle. "I know I have no justification for what I did, but please, don't take Shimo from me."

Kakashi felt his stomach knot. Did Iruka really believe he was that much of a monster, to take a child away from his parent?

"I know you have as much claim to him as I do, but please." Iruka's voice hitched and he looked down to hide the gleam of fresh tears in his eye.

Kakashi dared to rise and touch Shimo's featherdown shock of hair, the same color as his own. "He's beautiful, isn't he?"

Iruka smiled tremulously. "Yes."

"I had never dreamed of children. I didn't want to pass down my father's legacy to an unsuspecting child." Kakashi stared down at the fragile bit of life that he and Iruka had created. "But now that he's here, I don't think I could imagine the world without him."

Iruka shivered, caught by the possessive pride in the Copy-nin's voice. "Please…" His voice was barely a whisper.

Kakashi sighed and caught Iruka's chin. He knew instantly that was the wrong move, as Iruka's brown eyes blazed and he knocked Kakashi's hand away. "Don't patronize me. I may have played the part, but I am_ no _woman."

"Stop bristling at me, Iruka-sensei." Kakashi told him, exasperated. "Would you believe me if I said I have no intention of taking Shimo from you?"

Iruka looked up into his face, suspicious. "No."

"Well, believe that it's the truth. However, that doesn't mean I'll accept being cut out of his life. He is my son." He gave Iruka a one-eyed glare. "You won't get rid of me so easily."

Something shifted in Iruka's eyes and he grinned challengingly at Kakashi. "I wouldn't have it any other way!"

Kakashi had to laugh at the clear challenge in those words. For the first time since he had followed Iruka home, the air was almost clear, the tension dissipating between them. They still had much to talk about, but for now they had made a fragile sort of peace between them.

Iruka chuckled and looked at the takeout Kakashi had brought. "Well, at least the food is still half-way warm, so how does," He glanced at the clock and laughed again. "A really late dinner sound?"

Kakashi glanced at the time and felt his mouth drop open. The sun had set while he was here and the sky had darkened almost all the way to black. "More like a really early midnight snack."

Iruka snorted. "I'll set the food out and reheat what needs it. You make some tea." He helpfully handed the jounin the teapot and pointed at the cabinet that held the tea.

Kakashi had just begun to heat the water for tea when a tap on the door startled them both. He shared a startled glance with Iruka, who shrugged and headed for the door, pausing to release the jutsu that had bound the apartment all evening. Kakashi slid into place behind the door as Iruka reached for it. Iruka shot him a glare that wondered why an enemy would come _knocking_ at his door, even so late in the evening.

"May I help you?" He opened the door and stared curiously at the rail-thin man standing there. He didn't look very dangerous, more like a clerk or minor functionary.

"Umino-san?"

"Yes."

The man reached into a pouch and pulled out a sealed scroll. Behind the door, Kakashi could feel the chuunin's heartbeat speed up. His cinnamon and chalkdust scent was suddenly full of fear and nervous sweat. He was about to move when he saw Iruka's fingers still on the door move in a swift pattern on the wood. It was the shorthand sign used in dangerous situation, where a whispered word could bring a dozen enemies down on you. _Wait,_ he signed. _Be silent, stay hidden and wait._

The thin man handed Iruka the scroll. "You are summoned before the council of elders."

Iruka hesitated. "I beg pardon, but it's rather late... I will have to settle my son down for the night."

"The summons is urgent, Umino-san. Bring the child. I am here to escort you."

Kakashi could feel the sudden flare of panic from Iruka and he tensed. "Of course." Iruka's voice showed none of his fear, calm and professional. His fingers moved again. _Stay hidden,_ he signed again. _Then run, fetch Hokage. Hurry!_

_

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You hate me now... don't you? ~inserts dramatic music~  
_


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter Eleven

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**

A/N: WOW!! So many reviews this chapter! Thank you all so much! I love you all so much for the love and the encouragement! Over one hundred reviews! ~is still in shock~

If you left a signed review, I'll be answering you back, I promise. Feedback helps me and I believe you all should know how much your input means to me!

**Unsigned reviews: **Aoh-You're welcome! It's not like they won't try. Shimo is approximately two to two and a half months old. One month for Iruka to follow Kakashi around and plan his move. Eight to nine months for the pregnancy and a good month or more before Iruka is back on his feet and the baby is strong enough to travel all the way from the coastal town back to Konoha. Ricissa-Thanks! Here's your update! Koiscorpioberg- You are right! The music is lovely. ~hands you cookies~

Warnings for a stressed out Iruka in this chapter.

* * *

In deference to the velvet-black of the night outside, large lamps were lit beside the imposing doors of the council chambers. They did little to chase away the chill that Iruka felt. He cradled Shimo closer and hoped that Kakashi had already roused Tsunade. Shimo seemed to sense his unease, for he whined softly and struggled against the blanket wrapped around him. Iruka bounced him and whispered soothing words that went unnoticed by the fretful child.

Iruka wished he had been given time to grab more than the baby and a blanket to wrap him in, but his escort had been most insistent. And with Kakashi poised behind the door, radiating malice thick enough Iruka was surprised the man didn't feel it; he dared not linger too long. He gave Shimo a fingertip to suck on and silently promised there would be a bottle for him as soon as they got home. He forcefully banished the thought that they might expect him to return home with empty arms.

He shivered as the doors creaked open, swearing he would fight ANBU if he had to, to keep his son. He kept his eyes on the horrible metal sculpture that graced the center of the room, trying hard not to peer nervously at the assemblage of old men (and the occasional woman) seated around the horseshoe-shaped table that dominated the room.

Striding to the empty center of the table, he bowed his head curtly, a perfunctory obeisance that could not be faulted. "You wished to see me, honored ones?" He was pleased to note that his voice remained steady.

Iruka gritted his teeth at the oily sound of Sankakukei's voice, remembering that this was the man who had set this whole farce in motion. "Indeed we did, Umino-san. The Hokage has provided us with conclusive proof that the child does indeed carry the blood of the Hatake clan. Furthermore, it has been witnessed that the child may well be possessor of the Bloodline trait of this clan. We would see the child for ourselves." Sankakukei's smile was thin and made Iruka's blood run cold. "Bring him forward."

Iruka grimaced and unwrapped Shimo from his blanket. Shimo ceased fussing and blinked owlishly at the assembled council, his shock of silver hair mussed and sticking up in every direction. It made his resemblance to his father even more pronounced. There were several pleased murmurs from the council and Sankakukei's eyes gleamed with predatory avarice.

"And what of his other parentage?" Hoshikuro asked, smiling mockingly at Iruka. Iruka narrowed his eyes, assessing what the other man knew. This was the test of the cover story that they had cooked up, this one _entirely _for the council, unlike the tale he had told Anko. That one was safe enough to use for his friends, and others in general.

Tsunade had insisted and Iruka had agreed that as little about the truth as possible reach the ears of the council. They were masters of every kind of manipulation, and could use the facts of Shimo's birth against him. Being that Shimo was the product of a forbidden jutsu, that alone could easily be considered grounds for the council to take him away. It would be all too easy for the council to claim that Iruka were a spy for one of the other nations.

The cover story that Tsunade (with the judicious help of Shizune and Iruka – both of whom knew the village records inside out and sideways) had concocted was that the woman known as Umi was a cousin of Iruka and had proven herself willing to bear the Copy-nin's child. Tsunade had impregnated her with Kakashi's seed, having taken a sample during his last physical exam.

For her own safety, Umi had elected to return to her hometown to give birth in the relative isolation of the small seaside village. Iruka had accompanied her as escort and guardian. Umi had died in childbirth before a medic-nin could be dispatched. Iruka, as her closest living kin, had accepted responsibility and formally adopted the child. And every step of the way, there was a paper-trail to back up the cover story.

There was a birth certificate for one Ichikari Umi, daughter of Iruka's aunt on his father's side. Ichikari Mori and her husband had died on an S-class mission when she was four, leaving their daughter in the care of her paternal grandmother. She had moved back to Konoha, looking for work, after the death of her grandmother a year ago, and had hired on as a maid.

There were school records and medical records in her hometown to back this all up. Iruka knew; he had made sure of it himself. And Iruka had the formal certificate of adoption, signed by the town magistrate, notarized by Tsunade and witnessed by Shizune and Izumo. And there was enough truth to every bit of it to fool the council's spies.

There was indeed an Ichikari Umi and her birth certificate was genuine. However, her death certificate had vanished, to be replaced by the one the town magistrate and the medic-nin (the one who had been too late to save her) had both signed and witnessed. The true Umi had died at sixteen of a massive respiratory infection. She had been only distantly related to the Umino family, but judicious juggling of fact and fiction had made her real enough to fool anyone short of ANBU.

"Dead." Sankakukei said with satisfaction. "The child is in the custody of Umino Iruka."

Iruka nodded, feeling some of the tension in his shoulders ease. They had not seen through the deception then. "Yes, Honored ones. As is my duty and my right. I adopted my cousin's son as my own. As neither of us had any living relatives left, the responsibility fell to me and it was one I gladly accepted."

Sankakukei smirked. "But the child has already displayed evidence of a valuable bloodline trait. And as the child is left parentless, it is our responsibility to oversee his training. He may even display some of his father's genius."

Iruka's heart dropped into the vicinity of his stomach. "Shimo is not parentless. I am his legal guardian. And his father is still very much alive," he protested, fingers itching to reach for a weapon. They would _not_ take his son!

"His father is hardly able to care for the child alone." Hoshikuro injected smoothly. "And forgive me for saying so, Umino-san, but you are hardly qualified to train a child with such a bloodline limit by yourself."

Iruka felt his heart plummet again. The council had seen a way to neatly outmaneuver Tsunade's careful planning and to capture the winning piece. Check and mate.

His fingers curled around a kunai tucked in his sleeve and he tucked Shimo tightly against his breast. He _would_ fight if they came for his son. Let them pry Shimo from his cold dead fingers, for that was the only way that he would allow it.

"The council asks that you surrender the child to their supervision at once, Umino Iruka, so that he may be raised in accordance with the training he will need to master his Bloodline limit." Sankakukei said smugly, leaning forward as if to pluck Shimo right from Iruka's grasp.

"_No…"_ The whispered word was barely out of his mouth when the door behind him crashed open, startling a wail from Shimo.

The council rose to their feet as a collective as Tsunade stormed in, face a black cloud of fury. She was trailed by her faithful pair of ANBU guards and bringing up the rear was Kakashi. Iruka nearly sagged. They had made it in time.

_"YOU!" _Tsunade roared, pointing an accusing finger at Sankakukei. "Not only do you have the gall to attempt to back me in a corner concerning an outdated law, but you summarily summon one of _my_ shinobi long after hours in a blatant attempt to take his child away from him!"

Sankakukei gave her a smile that made ice look warm. "Hokage-sama, surely you can see that Umino-san is hardly capable of raising a child with a bloodline limit alone."

Tsunade looked down her nose at him, her chakra making her seem taller and more imposing as it flared and pulsed around her for any who could sense it to feel. _"You…_ are a bastard and a thoroughly obnoxious little man who thinks far too highly of his own power."

She turned and smiled at Iruka, a benevolent and slightly scary expression. "Alright, you two, time to come clean." Iruka struggled not to let his bewilderment show as she turned her attention back to the council. "There was only one reason I agreed to your stupid manipulation in the first place. Shortly after you came to me with this, two of my shinobi came to me with a request. They had recently signed a life-partner agreement and desired to cement their bond with a child." She narrowed her hazel eyes at Sankakukei. "Would you like to guess who they were?"

Iruka blinked and swallowed hard. This was not going according to plan. Not _at all._

Tsunade was still glaring at Sankakukei. "No guesses? I suppose I'll just tell you."

She smiled suddenly, an expression that was more predatory than Iruka liked. "Their names are Hatake Kakashi and Umino Iruka. You see, poor Iruka couldn't help but overhear the plans you had for his partner. So he discussed it with Kakashi and they hit upon a plan. Iruka's cousin very kindly volunteered to act as surrogate for them." Her face stilled in very convincing sorrow. "Unfortunately, poor Umi was too fragile to survive the birth, but she did provide them with a son."

Hoshikuro's face flared red. "This is preposterous. You expect us to believe such a blatant falsehood? These two never signed any life-partnership papers."

One of the ANBU stepped forward, head tilting down to regard the man with an expressionless bone mask. "You should think twice about accusing your Hokage of lying."

Tsunade put a quelling hand on the ANBU's shoulder. "Enough. I suppose I should have expected they would not believe me." She dug in the pocket of her robe for a moment before producing a folder. Iruka could only stare as she flipped it open to display a signed life-partner agreement. His name stared back at him in the bold, decisive kanji of his own handwriting, right next to the scrawled kanji of Kakashi's name. Tsunade fanned the paperwork out to display further forms, all bearing the same signatures. Application for change of status, medical notification forms and personal contact forms, and even notification forms for change of address. His eyes tracked on the date, noting that it was dated nearly two weeks prior to that fateful day in her office. He had a hollow, sick feeling in his gut.

Sankakukei blinked and glared challengingly at Tsunade. "It's funny they filed for change of address here, and yet they still live in two separate dwellings."

"Meh, that's because Iruka was sent on a mission before we could really start moving his stuff over to my place. But I'm sure you'll find evidence of my presence in his home as well as evidence of his in mine." Kakashi said calmly, his eye curved up in a smile. Iruka blinked numbly at him, suddenly sure that this was all some horrible dream he was trapped in.

"Besides, as I'm sure your own spies have reported to you that Kakashi has been at Iruka's place these past two nights and he was welcomed inside both times." Tsunade put in, all smiles.

"And the public fight shortly after Kakashi returned from a mission?" Another council member challenged, sallow skin gone even paler. "What is your explanation for that?"

Kakashi shrugged. "We had a little bit of a lover's spat. I got angry and Tsunade put me in my place until I had calmed down. We made up though. The make-up sex was definitely worth it." He grinned behind his mask, tugging his left glove off to display a slender silver band. Iruka flushed and paled as Kakashi sauntered over to him and tugged on the arm that was folded beneath Shimo's weight. "Come on, Ruka, show them yours too."

Iruka shifted Shimo's weight and tried to tug his arm free, but Kakashi held up his hand to display a matching band of silver. Iruka stared at it stupidly, unsure how Kakashi had gotten it there without him noticing. The rest of his mind abandoned him as Kakashi laced their fingers together and planted a masked kiss on the back of his hand.

Kakashi turned to Sankakukei, still smiling his one-eyed smile, but there was a new edge of steel in his voice. "And I think between the two of us, we are perfectly capable of raising and training Shimo. Do you disagree?"

The council member paled, suddenly reminded he was in the presence of one of the most deadly men in all of Fire Country.

A few minutes later, they all walked out of the council chamber into the dark night. Tsunade glanced back at Kakashi, whose fingers were still laced through those of the stunned chuunin beside him. "You owe me one for getting me out of my bed for this, brat."

"Meh, I think we're even." It wasn't a threat, but Iruka still felt like it was. He was numb, too stunned to even open his mouth.

Tsunade snorted. "Just take your family home, brat."

Kakashi nodded and began to form the seals for a teleport one-handed, his right hand still firmly linked with Iruka's left. Iruka was still too stunned to blink as they were seized by the jutsu and vanished in a swirl of leaves. They reappeared outside Iruka's front door. "Keys?" Kakashi asked.

Frozen, Iruka dug them out of his vest pocket and dropped them into Kakashi's waiting hand. Kakashi unlocked the door and poked Iruka none too gently in the side. "Wake up and disable these traps."

Shaking himself out of his stupor, Iruka stretched out a thread of chakra and disabled the traps. He stared down at their joined hands as Kakashi pulled him inside the apartment.

Shimo chose that moment to cry and that snapped Iruka out of his numb trance. He pulled his hand free and hurried to heat a bottle. It was only after he had heated it and settled Shimo comfortably in his arms to nurse, that he turned his attention back to the Copy-nin lounging patiently on a kitchen chair, watching him. Iruka was still feeling strangely detached from reality, but this was no genjutsu.

"How?"

"How what?" Kakashi asked, a finger idly tracing patterns on the table. His glove was still off, the silver band winking mockingly at Iruka from Kakashi's ring finger.

"How did you and Tsunade-sama manage to pull that off?" Iruka found he couldn't take his eyes off that ring. It glittered there like a horrible mockery of what he wanted but couldn't have. He stared down at the ring on his own finger, pale against his tanned skin and felt like crying. It was akin to being given everything you wanted, only to find it was as hollow as a shell.

"Tsunade had the papers. I just signed them." Kakashi decided this wasn't the time for his usual antics. Iruka looked like he was on the razors edge of going homicidal again.

Iruka's voice was tired and defeated as he stared at the silver ring on his own finger like it was a snake poised to bite. "Don't play games with me, Kakashi-sensei, please. I'm not in the mood."

"Who's playing games? When I went to get Tsunade, she said she was afraid something like this would happen."

"Enough." Iruka put Shimo down and pressed a hand to his forehead, lines of pain tightening around his brown eyes. There were dark circles under those eyes that were a match for Gaara of the Sand's. He tugged his headband off and massaged his temples, a few stray strands of hair drifting down to soften the edges of his face. "I am having a truly bad day and this pack of lies is not helping at all."

Kakashi shook his head. "No game, Iruka."

Iruka barked a short laugh and dropped into a chair. "Oh, of course not! Is this your revenge for what I did? I have to admit, I don't think you could have come up with a more fitting punishment." He spat venomously and then laughed a little hysterically. "The perfect vengeance for you."

"Iruka, you're not making much sense." Kakashi was considering calling Ibiki, because the chuunin looked like he was on the edge of a breakdown that would do any ANBU proud.

"Don't call me… Wait, I forgot – we're lifepartners now. What should I call you? Kashi? Beloved? Or do you prefer Master?" Iruka's voice was scaling into hysterics now, his hands shaking as he yanked off the silver ring and flung it unerringly at Kakashi's head. Kakashi snatched it out of the air.

"For a moment, I thought… but no, this is just another sick game, a way to get back at me for what I did." Iruka hissed, rising to his feet. "Well, congratulations, you managed to thoroughly get your vengeance. How are you going to top this performance? Make me perform _seppuku_ in front of the Hokage monument?"

Kakashi rose and latched onto Iruka's wrist. "What are you talking about? Calm the fuck down!"

Iruka rabbit-punched him and yanked his arm away. "Don't touch me!"

"Stop it, Iruka!" Shaking off the punch, Kakashi grabbed for the disturbed chuunin. Iruka whirled and Kakashi reacted instinctively, sweeping a leg sideways, knocking his legs out from under him. They both saw it coming a second too late and even as Iruka brought his hands up to protect his head and Kakashi grabbed for him, his head hit the corner of the table with a loud thunk. He went limp and sprawled gracelessly on the floor.

"Shit! Iruka? Iruka, talk to me!" Kakashi turned Iruka over carefully, worried when he saw blood. The skin over the chuunin's temple had split, and with the dark circles under his eyes and the sallow color of his normally tanned skin, he looked disturbingly close to death. Kakashi pressed fingers to his throat and noted with relief that his heartbeat was steady, if a little fast.

He sighed and lifted Iruka, carrying him down the hall to his bedroom. He laid him out on the futon and rummaged carelessly through his bathroom for a first aid kit before remembering it was in the kitchen. Kakashi fetched the kit, and on second thought, scooped Shimo out of his cradle. He stared down into his sleeping son's face for a moment before laying him on the futon beside Iruka. The sight of him should calm Iruka when he woke.

After deftly cleaning and bandaging the wound, Kakashi settled himself cross-legged near the head of the futon, pulling _Icha Icha Violence_ out of his pocket. Flipping absentmindedly through the familiar pages, he let his mind drift back to earlier in the evening.

* * *

After watching Iruka leave with the council flunky, he'd teleported himself across the village to the Hokage's residence. If not for the wards and the likely reactions of her ANBU bodyguards, he'd have teleported himself straight into her bedroom. As it was, he'd barged in to find her curled up in her bed with a small bottle of _sake_ and a book. The book had nearly ended up braining him.

When he'd finished explaining, her hazel eyes narrowed in fury. "I knew those fools would try something like this. They want to take Shimo to raise."

"Because they want him loyal to them before anything, even the village," Kakashi realized with a snarl.

"Exactly." Tsunade nodded. "And because Shimo is the result of a forbidden jutsu, Iruka is not on record as his blood, save for in a very restricted file in my personal ones." She swiftly explained the deception they had concocted concerning Shimo's parentage.

Kakashi frowned. "They are _not_ getting my son."

Tsunade looked up at him, a strange little half-smile on her lips. "So he's _your_ son now?"

Kakashi glared at her. "Yes. And I'll do whatever it takes to protect him."

She laughed. "Calm down. It's not me you have to convince. You know that you're not going to be the ideal of fatherhood." At his dark look, she waved a hand. "Through no fault of your own, brat. You know you're too valuable to be confined to the village, and it's hard to be there all the time."

_Like Iruka, _Kakashi thought, _who doesn't often take missions and is a natural teacher. _"So if I had someone who could be there for the child, would that keep them from trying to take him?"

Tsunade eyed him shrewdly, like she knew the trend of his thoughts. "Oh, it won't stop them, but it will certainly put a fox in among the chickens. They'll be so flustered it would take them months to come to a decent argument for taking the child. And by then it would be far too late, especially if the village saw you as part of a family unit, solid and stable."

Kakashi looked speculative. "So, if I were, to say… have a spouse willing to raise Shimo with me…"

"It would be a damned good way to keep them from taking your son? Exactly."

Kakashi regarded the pleased smirk on his Hokage's face and thought he just might have been manipulated. "So how soon could you have documentation proving just that ready?"

"Get Sakura-chan up here to my office, and I can have them ready in under five minutes."

Kakashi nodded and teleported to Sakura's apartment, dragging her out of bed and teleporting both of them back to the tower. Dressed in a white tank and sleep shorts, she rubbed sleep out of her eyes as he propelled both of them to Tsunade's office. "Kakashi-sensei? What's going on?"

Tsunade looked up as they entered, a robe thrown over her sleepwear. "Ah, Sakura-chan, good. Are your forging skills still up to par?"

Sakura looked sideways at Kakashi before hesitantly nodding. "Good," Tsunade grinned. "Get over here and prove to me how good you are."

Kakashi slipped back through the door. "I'll meet you on the way to the council chambers."

"Where are you going?" To her credit, Tsunade never looked up from the papers she was arranging for Sakura.

"Need to run a couple of errands. I'll be back before the ink's dry." Like a shadow, he was gone. It only took a few minutes to artfully arrange a few things, and he was back, quickly signing his name where Tsunade indicated. Tsunade dismissed Sakura, with a promise that she'd get a full explanation later, and they headed for the council chambers at top speed.

* * *

Kakashi sighed and put the book down, opting to watch the sleeping chuunin instead. Until the day Iruka had confronted him over the nominations of Team Seven, he'd paid no attention to the academy teacher who often played chess and mahjongg with the Third. He was just another chuunin in a faceless sea of ninja.

With the exception of a very few jounin he interacted with on a regular basis, Kakashi preferred to remain isolated. He knew his own social skills were badly stunted, having been made a full-fledged chuunin when he was only six. He had few real friends, most of them in the form of his pack of nin-dogs. In that he was unlike the chuunin-sensei, who seemed to make friends wherever he went.

Kakashi pulled out the silver ring that Iruka had chucked at him earlier. He gently slipped it onto Iruka's ring finger, marveling how Sakumo's ring fit perfectly on the tanned finger, shorter and broader than his own, but no less capable. He dropped his own thin fingers down beside Iruka's, chuckling at how his own mother's ring fit him far better than Sakumo's would.

He lifted his hand and quietly moved a strand of hair out of Iruka's sleeping face. He looked past him to where Shimo slept; still astounded by the slip of life they had created between them.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter Twelve**

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I have fanart for this chapter! Check out the link in my profile! Beasiesgal drew me a lovely image of Kakashi holding Shimo!

Oh, and thanks to everyone who reviewed this and my Christmas stories! I love you all!!!! ~glomps and molests~

Oh and on with the story!

* * *

It felt like a forge had set up shopkeeping inside his head. His skull rang with hammer blows as he cautiously cracked open an eye. Iruka relaxed as he recognized his bedroom. He was lying curled on his side and Shimo slept peacefully right beside him. Had Shimo been colicky again? That would account for both the pounding headache and Shimo being in here rather than in his cradle. He reached out to touch the baby's skin, wondering if he was running a fever.

The glint of silver on his ring finger brought the whole night crashing back and he twitched. That slight movement made him suddenly and uncomfortably aware of the warm, breathing presence at his back and he froze.

"Awake now?" Rumbled a deep and heartbreakingly familiar voice, right in his ear.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Iruka sat up fast and then groaned and clutched his head.

"Here." A hand came into his line of sight, holding a glass of water. He took it and the hand returned with a pair of white tablets. He looked at them suspiciously. "They're over-the-counter painkillers. I found them in your bathroom." Kakashi sounded amused. That made Iruka decide it was worth the risk and he swallowed both pills. Maybe, if they were poison, they'd kill him quickly and put him out of this misery.

He jerked as fingers touched an incredibly painful spot on his temple. Iruka hissed and flinched.

"Sorry," Kakashi apologized. "You gave yourself a good whack when you fell. Hold still, I want to see if it's stopped bleeding."

Forcing himself to remain still, he endured the surprisingly gentle touches. "Looks good. You're going to have a nasty bruise there, though."

"Why are you here?" Iruka gritted. "Enough of this stupid game."

"How many times do I have to tell you it's not a game, before you believe me?"

Iruka squinted past the pain in his head to look up at Kakashi, sitting beside him on the futon. "I'm not going to believe you. Ever." Iruka rubbed the bridge of his nose, the thin line of scar tissue cool against his fingertips. "You have the fucking council beat at manipulation. I've never been so expertly played in all my life." His laughter had a harsh edge. "So what's next? Are you going to take him from me?"

"I told you I wouldn't take Shimo from you. Why won't you believe that?"

Iruka didn't answer, picking up the sleeping baby and cradling him close to his chest. He buried his nose in Shimo's hair, and Kakashi was surprised to smell the salt tang of tears. "I suppose it doesn't matter, after all." Iruka murmured quietly, his voice small and broken. "He's safe from those bastards now, and that's all I ever wished for. After all, it does no good to yearn after what you can't have."

"Iruka…" His voice made Iruka look up and those brown eyes were so dull and lifeless that it sent a pang through Kakashi's chest. He'd _never _seen the chuunin-sensei's eyes so dead. Not even when Iruka had been at Naruto's bedside, worried that that boy wouldn't wake from his disastrous encounter with Sasuke. He hadn't had the nerve to speak to Iruka then, sure that the blame for Naruto's injuries could be laid squarely at his own feet. He'd only dared to visit the boy when Iruka was gone.

"Why this, Kakashi-sensei? Why are you doing this?"

"I would do anything to keep Shimo safe." He thought that might ease the dull color of Iruka's eyes, but if anything, it did the exact opposite. It hurt to see eyes like that in something that wasn't a lifeless corpse.

"Of course. I should have known better." Iruka fixed his dulled gaze on the infant in his arms. "I think I'd like you to leave now, Kakashi-sensei."

"No."

For a second anger brought life back to that dead expression. That small defiance lasted only an instant, but it assured the copy-nin that the real Iruka was in there somewhere. "I'm not leaving until we've talked."

Iruka managed a credible imitation of his usual snort. "That would be new."

"Meh?"

"We don't talk. Most of our conversations wind up being arguments. You can't deny that."

"No." Kakashi wasn't sure whether to be taken aback by Iruka's blunt tone or amused by the truth of his statement. He settled on something somewhere in the middle. "But this time I think we have to."

"It's a little late for pre-marriage counseling or discussion. Last I heard, we were already married." Iruka stared at the play of light on the ring on his finger. The band wasn't new and looked like it had been well-worn, tiny scratches marring the dully gleaming surface.

"It was my father's."

Iruka jerked his head up to stare at the jounin. "What?"

"The ring. It was my father's wedding band. He wore it constantly after mother died when I was just a child. The one and only time he ever took it off was the night he died. I found it in a box with hers on his desk." Kakashi lifted his hand and displayed the ring on his own finger. His single eye looked melancholy. "I'm wearing hers."

Iruka was taken aback and looked at the ring in this new light. He'd never thought Kakashi could be sentimental about anything. Even when he'd found out about the copy-nin's daily visits to the memorial, he'd mentally classified it as duty and loyalty that drew the man there.

Tentatively, he reached out and touched the band on Kakashi's hand. The jounin let Iruka pull his hand close to look at the rings side by side. "I'm sorry." The apology was so soft that Kakashi barely heard it. But the damp eyes that looked up at him had lost that dead look and regained something that he might have termed hope. "I've been so scared, ever since the day I overheard Sankakukei in Tsunade-sama's office. I'm not a brave man, Kakashi-sensei. I'm a little bit of a coward, I think, though for Shimo's sake I would fight the entire village. I've been scared of losing him since the first time I walked back into the gates with him in my arms. I've been scared of your reaction to the truth about his birth. I've been terrified that you would hate me." Iruka's voice wavered and he looked down to hide fresh tears. "I didn't think I could stand it if you hated me too."

"Too…?" Kakashi managed, more than a little startled by Iruka's sudden apology and confession.

Iruka laughed weakly. "What's Naruto going to think when he comes back home to find out that I have a baby? He'll hate me if he finds out the truth."

"No!" Kakashi's forcefulness startled the chuunin and he blinked up at Kakashi. "You're a fool if you believe that, Iruka. Naruto… you mean the world to him. He always told me that he was trying so hard to be the best so that you would be proud of him. Your opinion of him counts more than anyone else's."

Iruka shivered a little, but his bowed back was slowly straightening. Kakashi decided to elaborate, hoping to return Iruka to the strong man who'd openly defied him. "You remember that mission where he picked up that awful fever? He was still sick when we got back from Wave country." At Iruka's tentative nod, he went on. "When the fever first hit him, it was really high, so bad we had to give him cool baths in the river to bring it down some. Sakura and I took shifts watching over him while he slept. He would dream horrible fever-dreams that would wake him screaming. He always called out for you. Once he called you Iruka-otousan."

Red stained Iruka's cheeks as he stared at Kakashi. "He did?"

Kakashi nodded and watched as Iruka slumped. He'd have thought something was wrong, but the chuunin graced him with a smile so wide it was blinding. "Thank you for that, Kakashi-sensei."

"Mah, it's only the truth." Kakashi risked a grin behind his mask. "You think we can talk now without you trying to kill me or maim me?"

Iruka met his gaze and nodded, leaning back against the pillows with Shimo still cradled to his chest. He hummed softly to settle the sleepily stirring infant. Kakashi was pleased to see the life had returned to those chocolate eyes.

Iruka sighed, looking down at Shimo. "What do you want to talk about? If it's the life-partnership, we can go our separate ways, and go about life the same way we always have. You can come and train Shimo and spend time with him whenever you wish."

Kakashi tipped his head. "Don't you think, considering that you had already filed change of residency papers, the council might find it odd that we continue to maintain separate residences?"

"I filed? I'd still like to know how my signature got on those papers!" Iruka snapped, his cheeks flushed red. "I'm relatively certain I would have remembered signing a life-partnership agreement. Minus the giving birth to a son, I haven't had any real life-altering events occur, so there are no gaps in my memory in which I might have been drugged and forced to sign papers."

Kakashi flushed and Iruka watched in fascination as the red crept up over the edge of the mask. The jounin sheepishly scratched the back of his head. "Ah, here's where we run into a bit of a gray area…"

He was fixed by the schoolteacher-look-of-absolute-doom. "Explain."

"Well, you had already been called before the council and we didn't have a lot of time to come up with a solution. Did you know that Sakura can forge your name? I wouldn't be surprised if she knew how to forge the old lady's official seal and stamp. Tsunade called her in to put your signature on those papers."

Iruka looked mortified, the fingers of his free hand clenching on the leaf-patterned comforter. "Sakura-chan is in on this?"

"Meh, if it helps, I'm pretty sure she doesn't know the whole story."

Iruka's glare promised a slow and painful death that probably involved boiling oil and a funnel, or at least an anthill and a liberal application of honey. "Sakura-chan was the brains of the three on your team. What makes you think she hasn't figured it all out by now?" He went on, visibly seething. "And what she doesn't know, she can find out. She is Tsunade-sama's apprentice!"

"Iruka."

Iruka flinched and had to remind himself that according to Kakashi's (admittedly loose) view on things, the man had every right to drop any honorific. It was yet another reminder that he was trapped by a nightmare version of a long-held dream.

Kakashi caught the twitch and sighed under his mask. Iruka was too used to thinking of him as the enemy. "Iruka, we'll both go to any extreme to protect Shimo. I think working this out would be a good way to start. Like it or not, in the eyes of that horde of old bats, we're life-partners. If we give them reason to doubt that, they'll look for another opportunity to take Shimo away. And next time they might wait until I'm out of the village to try it."

Iruka shuddered and had to force himself not to tighten his hold on his son. "I'd fight."

"And lose." Kakashi's voice was blunt. "Not to doubt your skills, Iruka, because I've got the injuries to prove those, but the council can afford to hire men who'll be more than happy to kill you for money. And you won't be able to stop them all." He grimaced. "And knowing that flock of carrion crows, they'll be more than happy to use it as an excuse to start another damned war. Even though they know we're short on manpower, thy still want to prove our strength to the other nations, and that will get us all killed if we don't stop them."

Iruka trembled but looked up. "I'm trapped into this aren't I?"

This time it was Kakashi's turn to flinch. "I'm not trying to trap you, only to tell the truth of the matter."

Shimo chose that moment to wake with a cranky cry. "He needs changing." Iruka rose and carried the infant over to the low dresser that dominated one corner of his small bedroom. Kakashi watched Iruka deftly strip Shimo, his hands sure and steady. His voice was so low Kakashi could barely hear it as Iruko opened a drawer to pull out a diaper and powder. "But I am trapped." He whispered as he made short work of cleaning the baby and diapering him. "I'm trapped in a gilded cage. But under the gold and the glitter, the bars are cold iron."

He didn't look back as he carried Shimo down the hallway. The sight of that painfully stiff back made Kakashi wince and he followed. Iruka ignored him as he heated a bottle for Shimo and fed the baby. When he looked back at Kakashi, his eyes were world-weary and sad, and looked like the chuunin was one step away from wearing that frighteningly dead look again.

"I can't." He said simply. "I can't pretend to a relationship where there isn't one. I can't be content with that, not even for Shimo's sake." He smiled. "It's a very pretty dream you offer me, Kakashi, but it's still a hollow one."

He turned his back and went into the living room, where he sat on the couch, cradling Shimo. "I'll die to protect him. I hope you won't, because he'll need you there to teach him."

Kakashi was stunned. Iruka spoke so casually of throwing away everything, of taking the same coward's path out that Sakumo had! He resisted the urge to shake the chuunin out of his apathetic state. Iruka seemed to sense what he was thinking and met his eyes, one corner of his mouth coming up in a sad little smile. "I won't dishonor this ring by taking the easy path out. I will fight to save him from the council. They'll kill me, but it will cost them."

"Don't!" Kakashi's voice felt strangely thick in his throat. "Fight to save him by staying alive to raise him."

Iruka's smile was as sad and tired as his eyes had been. "You're not a fool, Kakashi-sensei. I don't want the pretty wrappings, I want the dream. I want to be your life-partner, but not if it's an empty sham made to fool the council. Why do you think I volunteered to have him? Because I thought he was all of you that I might ever get. And I was satisfied with that, right up until the day you broke my jaw."

Iruka's laugh was sharp as broken glass. "And there you were, wanting in his life… and mine by default. The dream became a nightmare."

"You…"

"Are a fool for loving the unattainable Copy-nin? I already knew that." Iruka smiled bitterly. "I fell in love with a dream, but the more I got to know the man, the deeper I fell. But I knew you would never be mine. It was there every damned time I saw you with that damnable orange book in your hand, proof that I would never be something you wanted. And oddly enough, Umi was the final nail in the coffin of my dreams." His voice was angry now. "I managed to kill my dreams as surely as if I had used a kunai."

Kakashi could only stare, his normally glib tongue long ago deserting him. It took three tries to manage, "What?"

Iruka deflated, his anger draining away. "Damn you," He whispered. "Damn you for being something I could never have."

"You…" Kakashi was stunned. He felt as if he'd taken the worst of an exploding tag to the back of the head. He'd never thought of the chuunin-sensei that way. Kami, he'd barely thought of the man much at all!

Iruka's sudden laughter was dry and bitter, sharp enough to leave wounds. "Yep. Umino Iruka. The idiot who fell hard for the infamous Sharingan Kakashi; the man of a thousand Jutsus – the man who reads porn in public. I'm a fool who fell in love with someone who barely knows me from the next Mission room worker." He cradled Shimo closer, his voice oddly broken, as if he were swallowing back sobs. "I gave up my life and _for Hokage's Sake_… even my gender, to bear a child by you!"

Shimo squalled in protest at the too-tight embrace and Iruka gasped, his tanned face going pale. He relaxed his hold so quickly that Shimo, squirming, nearly slipped from his grip. Kakashi sat beside the chuunin and reached over to steady the baby. To his surprise, Iruka sighed and released Shimo into his hands. Kakashi pulled the baby close to his chest as Iruka looked away, his posture wounded and defensive.

The copy-nin looked down into bright brown eyes in an open, trusting face and felt a part of his heart (a part he thought had died long ago with his sensei) warm and swell. Tiny fingers gripped his own pale, scarred ones and something in him broke, releasing a flood of tenderness for Shimo. _His son._

He caught Iruka watching him with a yearning gaze and a wistful half-smile. He was surprised by the relief that expression brought him. It _had_ hurt to see Iruka so anguished. _It had hurt._ Pausing, Kakashi considered that truth. He looked down at the baby in his arms, watching absently as those tiny fingers gripped strongly at his hand. He found a smile curving his lips at the strength in the infant grasp.

He had never given a thought to having children, too focused on being the deadly Copy-nin of Konohagure. But now that Shimo was here, in his arms, he couldn't imagine not having him there. And Iruka had given that to him. Sure, it had involved a web of deceit and lies, but… the end result was more than he ever could have imagined.

Solemnly he looked up into that yearning, half-hopeful face. He imagined never seeing that smile again and felt a pang. "I don't love you, Iruka." He said at last. "Until Shimo came into my life, I wasn't sure that I was still capable of loving anyone."

Observing the sudden pained look that twisted those scarred brown features, he knew the truth. "I don't love you yet, Iruka. But I think I could learn to. No…" He corrected himself. "I _know_ I could learn. With you it would be easy."

A slow shudder passed through Iruka's lean frame and suddenly, he was the man he'd been a year ago; the cheerful teacher with a ready smile… not the slightly bitter, sarcastic and sad creature who had confronted him in a street over Shimo. His brown eyes welled with tears, but he didn't let them fall. His smile was blinding and Kakashi was suddenly sure he had been wrong. He couldn't learn to love the chuunin… because he was already falling.

Iruka reached out to tentatively touch his masked cheek, still smiling that watery, joyous smile. "I'd like that, Kakashi. I think I'd like that very much."

Kakashi settled Shimo firmly into the curve of his folded legs and reached up to take the Chuunin's hand in his own. He felt the press of cold metal and thought, _maybe it's not the way I would have ever imagined it, but I think I understand now. I think I understand what it means to be part of a family. Maybe if we had remained a family after mother's death, you wouldn't have chosen the way out you did, Father. And maybe that's as much my own fault as yours._

Taking a deep breath, he reached up and tugged down the dark fabric that had covered his face since the night his father had committed suicide, baring his face. Iruka's eyes lit up and wondering fingers traced across features kept hidden from the sun for a very, very long time. Kakashi had always hated looking at his own face in the mirror, reminded inescapably of Sakumo and his disgrace. But the look in Iruka's eyes didn't share that hatred. He only saw the face of the man he loved, and somehow that tore open wounds he'd thought gone long ago and started them healing. _I think, Father, I found the right person to wear your ring. He will never disgrace it._

Iruka smiled and cupped his jaw. "May I kiss you, Kakashi?"

"Yes." They were both smilingnow, and Kakashi couldn't help but think that this was what he'd been missing all along.

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A/N: Warning for smut in the next chapter! Which is the last chapter...


	13. Chapter 13

I'd like to thank everyone who reviewed, favorited, or added this story to their watch. It means more than I can say that all of you stuck by to see this through. I'm very sorry for the delay in getting this chapter out to you, but I've been really busy with… well… life. I'm not completely giving up on this universe either. I have at least two finished side stories and several more in the works, for those of you who don't want to see the last of Shimo. I have several other stories I plan on uploading soon, too!

Fair warning: this chapter has SMUT, so if you don't want to read that or object to the male/male content, please go back. I accept no responsibility for any trauma.

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Title: Mission's Gift  
Author: Kita the Spaz  
Chapter 13 of 13  
Rating: **NC-17** (no kiddies allowed please)

**Chapter Thirteen**

Iruka dusted off his hands and looked around the main room of their new apartment with satisfaction. It had been three and a half weeks since Anko had showed up at his old apartment, grinning like a loon and herding Ibiki, Genma, Raidou and Izumo in front of her. "Ruka-kun!" She'd greeted in a chirping voice that had immediately put him on the defensive. "Let's get this show on the road! Ibiki, Raidou – you two start with the big stuff, except – " She made a face. "That fug-ugly couch."

"What?" Iruka protested as the two special jounin grabbed his low table and manhandled it out the door. "Anko-chan?"

She grinned at him around a stick of dango. "We're helping you move, silly."

"How d-did you find out about that?" Iruka sputtered knowing his face was bright red.

"Er, that's my fault," Genma put in nervously, his senbon waggling from side to side. "I saw the change of address forms today in the filing room."

"And you told everyone?" Iruka folded his arms and bestowed one of his most famous Sensei-Glares on the senbon-chewer.

"Just Anko." Genma cringed. He'd been on the wrong end of Iruka's temper _once_ and that had been more than enough.

Iruka fixed his glare on the purple-haired kunoichi, who merely grinned unrepentantly. "Honestly, Iruka-kun, did you think I'd find out and not help you?"

Iruka glanced around his half-packed living room and wondered if he'd be doing himself a favor by giving up his belongings as lost. It might be safer.

"Besides," Anko smirked. "Who in their right minds could pass up the opportunity to find out the truth behind the rumors that you and Hatake Kakashi are moving in together. And if you were, _why you didn't tell me!"_ Anko sounded aggrieved.

Iruka gave in to temptation. He held up his hand so that they could see the silver band adorning it. "It's not a rumor, Anko-chan, it's the truth."

Anko goggled at him and leapt clear over Shimo's cradle to grasp his hand and study the ring. _"You…"_

"Kakashi and I signed life-partnership papers. Tsunade-sama has them on file."

Anko squealed like a teenager and flung herself bodily on the chuunin, enveloping him in one of her life-threatening hugs. "You dog! I knew you liked him, but life-partnership?! Kami, why didn't you tell me?"

Iruka chuckled as he pried the over-enthusiastic jounin's arms from the stranglehold she had on his neck. "It was all rather sudden." He temporized. It wasn't _technically_ a lie. "Tsunade-sama performed the binding and Shizune witnessed."

"That's it!" Anko cried out. "As soon as we get you moved, I'm taking you out to celebrate!"

"Really, Anko, that's not necessary," Iruka protested. "Besides, what about Shimo? I don't have anyone to watch him! Kakashi's on a mission and Shizune is working at the hospital."

Anko grinned mischievously. "Ibiki-kun can look after him for you." She exclaimed, just as the scarred jounin walked back in.

Iruka grinned, remembering the stunned expression on Ibiki's face. He set a picture of himself and Naruto next to the framed pictures of Team Seven and Kakashi's own genin team. He was pleased with the way the new, larger apartment looked with both of their possessions sharing the space. He dropped a last cushion on the new couch (a gift from Anko) and turned at a faint sound from the nursery.

He paused in the doorway, unable to hide a smile. Kakashi was sitting in the rocking chair (a gift from Shizune and Gai, who looked to be signing life-partnership papers of their own soon) and singing softly to Shimo. Iruka leaned against the doorframe to listen, heart melting at the tender expression on the copy-nin's exposed face.

They had made a series of tentative steps in their relationship, like Kakashi no longer wearing his mask at home, except when they had company. Iruka rather enjoyed the most recent development of sudden, molesting kisses initiated on the slightest excuse. He'd had to start it himself, pulling Kakashi into the kisses, but now Kakashi would pounce on him, triggering a deep, searching kiss, accompanied by increasingly bold gropes. Not that Iruka minded in the least.

Iruka watched Kakashi stroking Shimo's pale hair, marveling at how far they'd come in such a short time. They shared a bed at night, (though they hadn't had sex yet) ate together, talked, or simply enjoyed each other's company while Iruka graded papers and Kakashi read or fed Shimo. It was amazing how much Kakashi had come to care for Shimo, happily taking on tasks like feeding and bathing and even willing to put up with the less pleasant parts; like dirty diapers, spit-up and the recent bout of colic that had kept them both up all night. But much to Iruka's surprise, he reveled in quiet time spent with his son, simply content to hold Shimo.

Kakashi rose and settled a sleeping Shimo back into his crib, gently tucking a blanket around him. Iruka watched him bending over, and decided that lean ass was just begging to be fondled. It was time for another 'kiss-grope-cuddle-attack.'

He glided up behind Kakashi, slipping his arms around the jounin's waist and resting his cheek on the slightly taller man's shoulder. "Kakashi…."

Kakashi turned in his embrace, looping his arms around Iruka's neck. "Mmm?"

"I feel a need to molest you," Iruka explained with a grin, capturing Kakashi's lips. Kakashi happily leaned into the kiss, hand smoothing down Iruka's back, sending a shiver through the chuunin as those talented fingers stimulated the extremely sensitive scar tissue just below his shoulderblades. Kakashi had learned quickly that a single touch there got him a most satisfying response.

Iruka hissed in pleasure and retaliated by nipping Kakashi's bottom lip. He felt the shudder that passed through the jounin's body and slid his own hands down to cup Kakashi's rear, tugging him closer to grind their hips together.

He could feel just how much Kakashi was enjoying this. The hard heat pressing against his own erection was proof enough of that. Kami, how he wanted this man!

Kakashi bent his head to nibble his way down the line of Iruka's jaw. Iruka moaned softly and rocked his hips harder against Kakashi's. He'd wanted Kakashi's touch for so long, and now that he had it, he just wanted to drown in it. He couldn't count how many nights during his willing exile that he had had to content himself with remembering their single encounter, thinking that would be all he would ever have.

Now that that dream was here in front of him, it was all he could do not to knock the jounin to the nursery floor and molest him right there. Iruka sighed against the skin of Kakashi's throat and regretfully pushed himself away. Too soon. It was too soon for things to go as far as his rock-hard erection demanded.

Kakashi's expression stunned him; dazed and bereft as Iruka pulled away from their embrace. "Wha-?"

Iruka sighed and leaned in to kiss him again. It was meant to be a brief brush of lips, but Kakashi's hands came up to grip his shoulders and prevent another retreat. Not that Iruka particularly wanted to go anywhere, but he knew this wasn't a good idea. "Kakashi…" he murmured against the other's lips. "Not a good idea…"

"Why not?" Those teasing lips had slid along his jaw again and Iruka shuddered hungrily at the thrum of Kakashi's voice against the sensitive skin below his ear.

"Mmm…" Iruka lost his train of thought and had to grope after it. "Cause…_stop that_… we both know… it's too soo – " He broke off with a gasp as Kakashi ground hard into him. His eyes drifted closed at the feel of that hot, hard length pressing firmly against him. "Kakashi…"

"Hmm?" Kakashi's throaty purr sent a jolt of reaction straight down his spine.

Iruka moaned and leaned into the touch hungrily. Did Kakashi know what he did to his self-control?

"Bedroom… now!" Kakashi growled, steering the plaint form in his arms that way.

Iruka gathered his scattered wits and resisted. "No. Kakashi!"

Kakashi sighed and relented in his ruthless assault on Iruka's senses. "What is it?"

"I – " Iruka blushed and blurted. "I feel like I'm rushing you… into this." He finished rather lamely.

Kakashi blinked at him, stormy grey eye confused. "Iruka, you're the one saying no. If I had any reservations or intention of stopping, believe me, you'd know." He leaned in again, his hot breath tickling the skin of Iruka's throat. "You've been teasing and tormenting me enough, Iruka."

"But…"

"Iruka…" Kakashi's growl was a warning.

Iruka swallowed hard, trying to act like he wasn't frightened out of his wits, but failed as Kakashi sighed and looked him square in the eye. "What is it?"

Refusing to meet his eye after the first second or so, Iruka grimaced. "I know I'm not w-what you wanted in… in a partner. Would you rather have… _her?"_

"What?" For the second time today, Kakashi was left speechless. "Her?" For a moment, he couldn't fathom what Iruka was talking about, but the slight cut of Iruka's brown eyes toward where Shimo slept was enough of an answer. "Iruka, what are you saying?"

"I know you prefer… prefer…" Iruka flushed bright red. "_Women_. Shimo's proof enough of that!" His tone was bitter and self-recriminatory.

_So that's what this is all about._ Kakashi chuckled, earning a black scowl from the chuunin still wrapped in his arms. Still chuckling, he pulled Iruka closer and pressed their erections together as if to say 'isn't this proof enough?' But some part of his mind that sounded suspiciously like Minato-sensei warned him that alone would not be enough to soothe Iruka.

"Iruka," Kakashi began, resting his cheek against Iruka's hair and savoring the familiar cinnamon and chalkdust scent that was Iruka's alone. "I don't know what to say to reassure you. I do like women." He felt Iruka tense against him. "I like men too."

"Liar."

Kakashi sighed. Iruka could be so stubborn sometimes. "Let's face it, Iruka, sometimes on missions you don't exactly get to choose your partners." He felt Iruka flinch against him, and had a feeling there was a story there he'd have to get out of Iruka another time. "You and I both know this. I discovered that I liked both men and women, that way." He tipped Iruka's chin up. "I like you better."

Iruka's brown eyes melted and he pressed more firmly against Kakashi and tilted his head for a kiss. It was a melding of lips and tongue that did nothing to soothe the fire between them, instead fanning the flames to new heights. Kakashi finally had to pull back for a desperate breath, panting and flushed. "Bed, now?" He asked plaintively.

Iruka laughed and with a glance back to assure himself that Shimo were still asleep, took Kakashi's hand and tugged him toward the bedroom.

Kakashi's major contribution to the décor had been the large bed that now dominated the center of their shared bedroom. It was to this that Iruka steered Kakashi, pushing him down on the edge with a wicked smile. Kakashi tugged him in close for another searing kiss as Iruka's clever hands went to work on the fastenings of his pants. Iruka carefully tugged off the leg-wrappings and pulled pants and boxers down in one swift movement, all without breaking the kiss, which had passed into the realm of mind-blowing a while back.

At last he broke the kiss with one final, teasing swipe at Kakashi's bottom lip. Kakashi grinned at him, tugging the tie from Iruka's hair and burying his hands in the fall of dark-brown. Iruka leaned into the caress, turning his head to press a kiss into the palm of Kakashi's hand.

Kakashi couldn't stop a startled sound as one of Iruka's hands found his erection and the chunnin grinned at him, dropping to his knees between Kakashi's thighs. At the first touch of those lips, Kakashi threw his head back with a moan. His breath escaped in a rush as he felt Iruka's mouth envelop him, teeth gently scraping the delicate skin on the underside of his penis. The warm, deep suction sent a jolt of pure pleasure coursing like wildfire through his nerves.

Iruka's hands weren't idle either, one closing around the base of his cock while the other cupped and stroked his balls in rhythm with the steady, deep pulls of his mouth.

Kakashi fisted his hands on the shuriken-patterned bedspread and exercised all of his control and training to not thrust into the welcoming heat of Iruka's mouth. It was bliss and torture all at once, and he never wanted it to end. Iruka slipped both hands around his hips to knead his ass as he took Kakashi deeper in his throat. He could feel the teeth gently scraping against him and the muscles working around him as Iruka took him nearly all the way in.

Panting harshly, he wrapped the fingers of one hand in Iruka's long brown hair and tugged backwards until Iruka's lips slid off of him with a wet pop. "S-stop." He gritted.

Iruka's agile tongue darted out to lap at the head of Kakashi's almost painful erection, tip dipping into the slit to lap greedily at the drops of pre-come oozing out. Kakashi hissed and dragged him up almost harshly for a searching kiss. "You don't really want me to stop, do you?" Iruka rumbled against his mouth.

Kakashi nipped Iruka's lower lip in retaliation. "Damned straight I do. There are other places I'd rather come than in that hot little mouth of yours."

Iruka's smirk was wicked. "Who says you get to be on top this time? I think it's my turn."

Kakashi managed a glare. "What?"

Iruka smiled and kissed him again. "Well, you were."

Blinking, Kakashi scowled at his lover. "That doesn't count!"

"Says you."

Kakashi growled and bodily pulled Iruka up onto the bed. "I do say so. I'm going to fuck that tight little ass of yours until you can't see straight!"

Iruka chuckled. "Or walk…" He breathed in Kakashi's ear. Kakashi shuddered at the heated breath fanning over his ear and throat. Iruka planted a row of little nips and kisses from his earlobe to his chin. He purred as Kakashi fumbled to tug off the shirts they were both still wearing. Iruka twisted to help him, somehow divesting himself of his pants at the same time.

Kakashi bent for another kiss, sliding his hands up Iruka's ribs to tweak his pebbled nipples. He felt Iruka arch against him in helpless reaction, breaking away from the kiss for a desperate breath. "Fine…" He mumbled breathlessly, strong tan fingers gripping Kakashi's rear hard enough to leave bruises. "Next time, it's –_ ahh_ – my turn…"

Kakashi straddled Iruka's lean hips and pinned him to the bed. Iruka groaned breathily and arched up, grinding his erection into Kakashi's. Kakashi hissed and used his weight to hold down Iruka's thighs before he brought this whole thing to a rather abrupt and premature conclusion.

Iruka moaned rather wantonly and dug his fingers into the pale back above him. "Hurry… please." He muttered low in his throat. "Can't wait much longer. Wanted you for _so _damned long." He shifted to rub his leaking erection against Kakashi's thigh. "Need you in me now."

Kakashi blinked and realized that they were missing something rather crucial. Quickly, he ran through a list of possibilities. Iruka moaned and pointed at the small table the bedside lamp sat on. "In the drawer." Kakashi stretched to reach it and pulled out a small purple bottle of lube. He eyed Iruka with a raised eyebrow. "That confident, were you?"

Iruka tugged him down. "Just prepared." He hissed. "How about you return the favor and do some preparing."

Kakashi grinned down at the lithe form under him, feeling a thrill of proprietary glee. This was a wanton side of the prim, prone-to-blushing schoolteacher that he alone got to see. He spilled the cool gel on his fingers, shifting to allow Iruka to lift his legs and tilt his hips upward.

Iruka hissed and bit down hard on his bottom lip to suppress a cry as a slick finger teased the spot just behind his balls for a moment before finding its goal and sliding home. "More! Dammit, Kakashi, stop teasin – " He broke off with a groan as a second finger joined the first, scissoring slowly to relax the tight muscles. "Urgh… yessssss."

He grabbed a handful of that shock of silver hair to tug Kakashi down for another needy kiss. He mewled against Kakashi's lips as a third finger eased in to join the first two, bucking against the hand that teased him unmercifully.

Iruka's eyes were wild as he lifted his shoulders from the bed. "Now, damn you. Now!"

Kakashi added the lube to his own throbbing cock, wincing at the half-pain, half-pleasure sensation caused by the cold liquid on his own aching flesh. He eased into position, pressing in slowly. There was an almost audible pop as the head slipped inside. Iruka tensed around him with a pained moan, making Kakashi realize that Iruka wasn't nearly as experienced at this as he acted. Gritting his teeth, he slid home until he was fully seated in the willing body beneath him, murmuring soothingly to Iruka. Iruka remained silent for a long moment, teeth pressing down on Kakashi's clavicle and tears leaking from his tightly closed eyes.

Kakashi slipped a hand down to the juncture of their bodies and pressed fingers against Iruka's perineum. That pressure added to the fullness and stimulated the little cluster of nerves surrounding his prostate. Iruka came undone, crying out and throwing his head back against the pillows. The painfully tight grip around his cock eased and Kakashi began to move, slowly at first, but with growing confidence as Iruka began to make little sounds of pleasure with each stroke. Tentatively at first and then with increasing confidence, Iruka moved to meet his thrusts.

Before long, he was panting wildly and moaning as each thrust began to hit his prostate dead-on. Kakashi could feel just how close Iruka was and drove a hard thrust against his prostate, the slap of flesh against flesh drowned out by the scream of pleasure from Iruka. Between them, his cock spasmed, spurting ropes of cum over both their stomachs.

Kakashi gritted his teeth and held onto control tooth and nail, every single spasm in Iruka's tight passage a stab of wonderful torment. Finally, Iruka collapsed limply back to the rumpled bed, brown eyes half-lidded with satiation. He panted softly, residual tremors racing through his body and clenching his muscles around Kakashi's engorged cock.

Iruka blinked lazily at him, confusion just beginning to shine in his brown eyes. "Ka-Kakashi? You didn't…."

Kakashi silenced him with a kiss, tumbling both of them onto their sides and helping Iruka arrange himself with knees on either side of Kakashi's hips, and still impaled on Kakashi's swollen erection. Color rose high on Iruka's face as he found himself swaying above Kakashi, who grinned up at him and caressed the planes of his stomach. "Move for me," He growled softly. "I want to see you moving on top of me."

Iruka shook his head, tousled brown hair tumbling around his face. "No… I can't…"

He yelped and jumped indignantly when Kakashi slapped him on the ass. Kakashi shifted at the same time and a new wave of pleasure swamped Iruka at the new sensations produced by this position. A gentle hand closed about his flaccid cock and began to stroke him back to hardness again. "Move for me," Kakashi repeated in an enticing whisper. "I want to feel you moving above me, Ruka."

Iruka swallowed and shifted his legs to support his weight better. He dipped down for a brief kiss before planting his hands on Kakashi's pale chest. He shifted his weight to his knees and rose up and bit before rocking his weight back onto his heels. He shuddered at the jolt of pleasure that shot through his spine and let his head droop forward. _Oh, Kami…._ It was deeper, somehow, from this angle. Sharper and more urgent. Iruka repeated the movement, panting as he impaled himself over and over on his lover. _Oh, yesss…_

He liked this position more and more, Kakashi thought gleefully as he watched Iruka writhing above him. He reached up to caress Iruka's thighs and chest as the chuunin's movements became increasingly frantic. Iruka was panting for breath and making small animal sounds deep in his throat as he came down hard on the penis impaling him. "K-Kakashi…" He moaned. "I – _aaahhh_ – I can't – "

Kakashi stroked Iruka's newly rigid erection for a moment before taking pity on him and tumbling him back into the bedcovers. Iruka willingly hooked his legs over Kakashi's hips as the jounin pushed him hard into the mattress. Iruka lifted his hips to meet his lover's thrusts, moaning softly in his throat as Kakashi sped the rhythm, the slap of skin meeting skin the only sounds from the jounin.

_Ooohhh…_ Iruka dug his fingers deep into Kakashi's muscled back. He was… _he was_… The orgasm took him, blinding him and shaking him to his very core and leaving him as limp and boneless as a rag. He felt Kakashi sink into him to the hilt and shudder, the spill of heat as the silver-haired man came eliciting yet another shudder of pleasure from his overloaded system.

Kakashi slumped against him, oblivious to the sticky mess between them, the only sound as he came a low, drawn-out moan. Wearily, He sought Iruka's lips for another brief kiss. Iruka sighed against him, weariness and satisfaction dragging him toward the depths of sleep. He was too bone-tired to care about the ache in his tailbone or the sticky state of his stomach and thighs, or even the odd feeling of slickness as Kakashi's cock slid out of him.

Kakashi kissed his nose and dragged himself out of the bed to stagger to the bathroom. He came back, dressed in a pair of boxers, with a damp towel and tenderly began to wipe the evidence of their passions off of Iruka, easing one leg up to press the towel against Iruka's stretched entrance. When he was done, he went back to the bathroom and retuned with a glass of water and a handful of painkillers, shaking his drowsing lover awake. "Take these." He chuckled at Iruka's disgruntled look. "Or you'll never make it to school tomorrow."

Iruka sat up and obeyed. He had just returned the glass to Kakashi when a shrill cry caught both their attention. "Shimo."

Kakashi held up a hand. "At least he had the grace to wait until we were done. You stay there, I'll get him."

Iruka dragged himself out of bed after Kakashi had headed for the nursery, wincing at the stab of pain from his lower back. He grabbed his own sweats and tugged them on before making his way to the kitchen. He had a bottle warming before the copy-nin arrived with a fussing Shimo propped against his shoulder. Wordlessly he held out his arms for their son. Kakashi surrendered him and went to check on the temperature of the bottle as Iruka settled (carefully) in one of the kitchen chairs.

Kakashi brought him the bottle and, wincing, Iruka settled the baby against him to feed him. He chuckled wryly. "This is almost as bad as then."

Kakashi blinked. "Eh?"

Iruka sighed as he tried to shift carefully. "I was hurting a lot after…" He nodded his head at the baby in his arms.

Kakashi had obviously never thought of the mechanics of childbirth, because he turned a lovely new shade of green.

Iruka smirked wickedly at him. "Remind me to teach you the jutsu I used."

"Why?"

"Cause our next kid, you're going to carry."

"_What?!_"


End file.
